RF-SMART Blog

RF-SMART is Changing the World one Innovation Day at a Time

Written by Holli Anderson | October 12, 2015
If two heads are better than one, what could be better than 36 heads competing to bring fresh ideas and new solutions to better serve RF-SMART customers? This year, the annual RF-SMART Days of Innovation competition was open to the entire company to encourage new and original R&D ideas beyond just a products group responsibility.

At RF-SMART, we often say that innovation can and should happen everywhere in the company, and that’s exactly what happened.

For 48 hours, participating employees formed small teams to bring their innovative ideas together. During that time, groups put their day-to-day work on hold and focused on producing a concept or product that can help RF-SMART internally or our customers. This exciting event is a driving force behind our mission to transform businesses and change lives – and a vital part in helping us remain an international leader of innovation and enterprising solutions.

A total of 18 teams competed to win in one of two categories: Imagination Generation (fully-built concept) and Proving Grounds (fully-built prototype). A panel of judges scored the teams in the following categories:

  • The WOW! Score: If this was a sales demonstration for a customer, would this presentation WOW them?
  • The Usefulness Score: Would a customer find this application useful?
  • The Pain-Removal Score: Does this functionality solve pain a customer experiences?
  • The Sell-ability Score: Does this application have a spot in the market for our customers?

The Proving Grounds winner and recipient of $2,000 named themselves “Straight Outta Glove World” and presented an idea for a Smart Glove that allows for hands-free picking using the tips of your fingers.

The winner of the Imagination Generation was a duo confidently and appropriately named “Gimme my $1,500.” Their concept was a mobile software application that would benefit warehouse picking and employee productivity by allowing managers to monitor activity in real time all on one screen.

The top winners had high scores in all the categories and presented well-rounded and well-thought-out presentations. The judges commented how they were impressed by the quality of work with all the presentations - making for tough decisions on their part and setting the bar high for next year.

“We invest in innovation because we want to invest in you,” CEO Michael Morales said during presentation of awards.

While events like Days of Innovation are fun, we take innovation seriously year round. In fact, it’s one of our core performance principles because we know our customers require the best technology and functionality to remain successful in their industry. 15% of all sales revenue goes to our R&D team to ensure our customers are experiencing the most functional, advanced and leading-edge solutions on the market.

Keep your eyes out for new functionality our team works so hard to bring to you.

We’re changing the world one Innovation Day at a time.