SAGE Automation has been recognised in the Top 20 SA Innovation Awards.

The innovation put forward was the Perryman’s gingerbread icing robot project, innovative for its efficiency and unique application of a robot cell into a small manufacturing environment. The robot cell almost doubled the production output of Perryman’s famous Gingerbread Babies, enabling new export demand to be met.

The judges verdict on the project was “This evens the playing field, delivering a solution which only large-scale manufacturers enjoyed to a small boutique bakery. Remarkable was the speed of development of just 12 weeks, certain to add considerable bottom line benefits to the customer”

Finalists were announced at an exhibition on Friday the 5th of February 2010 at the National Wine Centre, followed by a cocktail reception where more than 200 of the state’s most forward thinking minds in innovation came to view the finalists products.

The award criteria included:

• products launched anytime since the new millennium
• targets business to business sales
• presents a clear disruptive edge within a market generates measurable commercial value
• originates in SA

The inaugural awards were run by In Business Magazine and sponsored by KPMG, DLS Phillips Fox, The University of Adelaide, Innovate SA and RiAUS.