Career

Innovation with a Practical Mindset

2026. 07. 29.

Before joining Audi Hungaria, Ferenc Nagy worked as an aircraft mechanic in the military. After arriving at the company in Győr, he also pursued a technical career path, focusing primarily on energy efficiency. Through the implementation of an idea that went beyond the scope of his job responsibilities, he earned the title of Top Innovator at Innomeet 2025.

How long have you been working at Audi Hungaria, and what positions have you held?

I joined the company in 2013 and have worked in the field of building services and energy supply ever since. My main focus is improving energy efficiency in building technology, and in this role I have been involved in monitoring energy consumption for more than twelve years.

Reducing the amount of energy used in manufacturing our products became a Group-wide objective and was also adopted by Audi Hungaria. Within a short period, I progressed from my initial role in building and energy supply operations monitoring to maintenance engineer and later energy manager, after earning an engineering degree while working at Széchenyi István University.

The systems knowledge I gained in aircraft maintenance, along with my ability to react quickly, proved valuable in the Audi environment as well, where I have always sought fast and effective solutions to unexpected challenges.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

What I appreciate most about my role as an energy manager is the creative freedom it offers. To a certain extent, we can shape our own processes—always in alignment with other company processes—and in some cases, we have to develop them ourselves.

That is why there are really no ideas here that are considered too unrealistic. This intellectual freedom is highly motivating. I also find it difficult to accept a solution when I know there is a better one available, so I am constantly looking for opportunities to improve processes and increase efficiency.

How did you become the Top Innovator?

The recognition was awarded for an idea related to our energy strategy that resulted in the greatest savings. Without going into too much detail, it is worth mentioning the background.

Some years ago, the European Union introduced a directive aimed at increasing energy efficiency, setting targets for each member state. In Hungary, the regulation was implemented in a unique way: energy suppliers are required to ensure that end users replace part of their purchased energy consumption through energy-efficiency measures. If this does not happen, companies must pay an additional fee for each gigajoule of energy involved.

This inspired my idea: we should have our existing energy-efficiency measures audited and certified so that we could reduce these additional financial burdens on the company.

The award is also connected to a further opportunity we created with the support of our Legal and Finance departments. We established a framework that allows us to sell surplus certified energy savings to our energy trading partner. As a result, with relatively little investment, the company generated significant revenue instead of additional expenses

Is this the idea you are most proud of?

I would say I am proud of this achievement as well, because it involved solving a challenge that was quite far removed from my regular responsibilities and required close collaboration across several departments. It demanded a completely different style of project management from what is typical in our field.

At the same time, the ideas I enjoy looking back on most are those in which the technical aspect plays the leading role, and where my contribution helped make the implemented system more efficient or cost-effective than originally planned.

One example I am particularly proud of is the climate-control system developed for Hall G80. My colleague, Adrián Patrik Tóth, who led the project, invited me to act as a control systems consultant. Together, we designed a control strategy that allows the cooling units to operate in a coordinated manner. The system optimizes air supply based on outdoor temperature and available capacity, improving both efficiency and reliability.

What motivated me in this project was the challenge of finding a way to place greater emphasis on control engineering than is traditionally the case, while maintaining both energy-efficient operation and operational reliability.

What skills are necessary to become a good innovator?

Openness is the most important quality. Within the company, I have completed numerous training courses related to building technology and have always tried to apply what I learned immediately.

The same was true for our building management system. Many parts of the software and its reporting modules reflect either my ideas or my direct work. These include automated daily reports that evaluate Audi Hungaria’s energy consumption data from the previous day, as well as simpler reports that support quality assurance in the body shop by monitoring temperature and humidity conditions relevant to adhesive technologies.

I keep up with new developments on a daily basis and continuously educate myself so that I am prepared for the next challenge.

What helped most in turning your ideas into tangible results?

A supportive environment is extremely important, as is feeling trusted and knowing that your work is appreciated.

Another key factor is an inspiring workplace. By this, I mean the colleagues I work with every day, who constantly provide new impulses and ideas through our collaboration and who are not afraid to offer constructive criticism that supports development.

At Audi, within our department, I have found exactly that kind of environment. I am also a true problem solver. When I start something, I like to see it through to the end. I firmly believe that every problem has a solution — you just have to find it.

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