Dr. Zühlke awarded

Manufacturing Leader of the Year Award

Lukas Dehling, 20.06.2017, 08:38

Dr. Zühlke awarded

The Chairman of the Board of the SmartFactory KL technology initiative, Prof. Dr. Detlef Zühlke, has received the Manufacturing Leader of the Year Award in the USA. He is the first non-American to receive this award.

Prof. Dr. Zühlke (center) at the award ceremony on 14 June 2017 with last year's winner John Fleming from Ford (left) and David R. Brousell (right) from ML Council.

Frost & Sullivan's Manufacturing Leadership Council presents the Manufacturing Leader of the Year Award once a year to an individual whose vision and achievements have had a significant positive impact on and advanced the industry. On behalf of the 15-member jury of experts, Global Vice President and co-founder of the Manufacturing Leadership Council David R. Brousell explained the selection of Zühlke: "Detlef Zühlke has done pioneering work in the field of Industry 4.0 and thus influenced production globally. Companies from all over the world benefit from his commitment to the identification, implementation and application of interfaces in production." Zühlke accepted the award at the gala ceremony in Huntington Beach, California, which concluded the 13th ML Council Summit. He follows managers from Ford and GE who received the award in previous years. Zühlke was also honored in the "Visionary Leadership" category.

"It is a special honor for me to be named Manufacturing Leader of the Year in the USA," said Zühlke. "The fact that the US jury has chosen a German expert for the first time is a great recognition of our work in the field of Industry 4.0 in Germany in general and at SmartFactory-KL in particular. I welcome this as a call for the necessary, closer cooperation between our two industrial nations on Industry 4.0. In order to achieve maximum progress, we must join forces, because Industry 4.0 is a network topic that no one can tackle alone. Together we are stronger," said Zühlke in his acceptance speech. With this in mind, he has been driving forward the international orientation of SmartFactory-KL for years. US and Asian companies in particular make up the technology initiative's growing circle of international partners.

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