Making good things even better – that is the recipe for success for both BASF and its employees. Last year, the company implemented nearly 20,000 suggestions for improvement from employees worldwide and as a result saved more than €50 million. BASF rewarded the inventive spirit and innovative power of the people behind the ideas with bonuses totaling more than €4.2 million. “Successful idea management enables us to increase our competitiveness and optimize our work processes. The improvements also often make an important contribution to promoting occupational safety and protecting health and the environment. These achievements are a credit to our employees, and we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks for their dedication,” said Margret Suckale, Member of the Board of BASF SE.

With a total of 7,000 ideas put into practice, employees of BASF SE at the Verbund site of Ludwigshafen saved the company just under €30 million in 2012. Thanks to just one idea from three employees who work at a solvent production plant, namely August Sadowski, Udo Storck, and Willi Haag, BASF saves more than €2.5 million per year. Their proposal was to rebuild the air cooler in the plant in such a way that the production capacity can be fully utilized even under high outside temperature conditions. This had previously not been possible due to insufficient levels of cooling and condensing. Now, BASF can meet the high demand for solvents in summer as well, and these employees are pleased to receive a record bonus totaling €170,000.

Idea management has become an integral part of the culture of innovation at BASF. The inventiveness of the company’s employees is clear from the numbers: In 2012 they submitted nearly 38,000 new suggestions for improvement.