en.Wedoany.com Reported - The German Federal Association for Materials Management, Purchasing and Logistics (BME) and the German Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) jointly presented the "Innovation Creates Advantage" award on June 9 at the "Public Procurement Day" event in Berlin, recognizing excellence in public procurement.

The German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) received the award for using artificial intelligence to assist in drafting Terms of Reference (ToR) in procurement. GIZ regularly procures consulting services for international cooperation projects, requiring customized service descriptions for each assignment. To address this time-consuming process, GIZ expanded the ToR functionality for its internal chatbot "KIM," which is trained on approximately 50,000 actual service descriptions from GIZ's own tendering procedures.

The application automatically generates structured initial drafts, while professional and quality responsibility remains with the employees. The system supports GIZ's four corporate languages and has generated over 1,000 drafts since its launch in May 2025. All generated data remains entirely within the GIZ organization.

The efficiency gains from systematically using actual tender documents to optimize daily workflows, as well as the practice of complying with formal regulations while using modern technology, impressed the jury.

The second "Innovation Creates Advantage" award was presented to the City of Düsseldorf for its daytime cleaning scheme for school toilets during class hours. Previously, the hygiene conditions in school toilets had been continuously deteriorating, leading to complaints from parents, schools, and students, while traditional afternoon cleaning failed to improve the situation. As it was difficult to deploy additional cleaning staff to 170 locations at the same time, the city developed the daytime cleaning scheme.

At 16 pilot schools, the project team, together with school staff, cleaners, and administration, jointly developed and continuously optimized cleaning plans. Daytime cleaning increased the visibility of cleaners, enabling faster responses to sudden dirt, while also fostering a greater sense of responsibility among users.

The project findings show that cleaners' working hours are now more conducive to balancing family commitments, and their job satisfaction has significantly increased. Additionally, city employees spend less time on supervision, and hygiene materials are saved, generating efficiency gains. The scheme has now been rolled out to 96 schools and extended to office buildings and Düsseldorf City Hall.

The jury was convinced by the communication with all stakeholders and the extensive change management before implementation, as well as the strengthened social sustainability and economic success achieved through efficiency gains.

Since 2006, the "Innovation Creates Advantage" award has annually recognized outstanding achievements by public procurement entities in procurement innovation and the introduction of innovative processes. This year's award ceremony took place during the "Public Procurement Day" event in Berlin, which annually brings together procurement managers from federal, state, and local governments, as well as public law enterprises, focusing on topics such as digitalization and innovative tendering tools.

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