Logistics 4.0

Tailored solutions for the future.

- Joachim Drees

The German Federal Government has put Industry 4.0 on its agenda. This concerns a model for the future of our business location: the digitalization of industrial processes. Digital networking is to become the foundation of more efficient and more flexible industrial production. Models like these must be based on tailored logistics solutions. This has consequences for the entire transport ecosystem. The prerequisite for Industry 4.0 is Logistics 4.0.

What are the challenges currently facing our sector? Logistics 4.0 must support a highly developed division of labour. The key word here is collaboration: industry calls off goods and services globally as required. Stages of production are digitally co-ordinated. Processing is taken over by specialized partners.

Trade expands with Internet-supported business models. In this regard, vendors need fast, small-scale flows of goods to the consumers.

These trends make the transport ecosystem even more important to the industrial value-creation chain. The logistics sector has in the meantime become the third most important sector in the German economy. A workforce of 2.8 million generates revenue of more than 230 billion euros per annum. Customers are carrying out increasingly complex tasks. The requirements in terms of adherence to delivery deadlines and transport quality are increasing. The same applies to transparency: in many cases, the documentation of logistics chains must be unbroken. And the framework conditions are also becoming more demanding: 75 per cent of the German population now lives in urban environments.