A big thank you to Dr. Katja Hambsch, Benedikt Pöhner and Daniel Zwetzich from Horvath & Partners for their great guest lecture on 6 December 2022. As part of our lecture “Strategic Logistics Management”, we were very happy to welcome them at TU Darmstadt alongside students from no less than three different master’s programs from the department law and economics. Our lecture deals with strategic logistics management and with the function, conception and trends of logistics and presents them in models of logistics management. In this context, the team around Dr. Hambsch shared exciting insights into their work and how they deal with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (SCDDA). The 90-minute presentation was complemented with a highlight for our students: an interactive quiz for all participants. We are looking forward to future guest lectures and further fascinating facts and insights!

As part of our course “International Logistics Systems”, we were pleased to welcome Dr. Sebastian Heger on 30 November 2022 for an exciting guest lecture on the topic of “Software-supported Workforce Planning in logistics”. As a senior consultant at M2P Consulting and OR specialist at WePlan Software, he was able to give our students valuable insights into the topic. The guest lecture dealt with the specifics of medium- and long-term workforce planning for companies in the logistics and aviation industry. Using different case studies, it was clearly demonstrated how software-supported planning can help to master the challenges of recording the workload of volatile requirements, various shift modeling as well as location- and qualification-based actual and target planning, taking into account legal and internal corporate planning frameworks. A big thank you for the exciting insights into this interesting topic!

We are pleased to announce the start of a new interdisciplinary research project at TU Darmstadt together with the Department of Management Science/Operations Research. The aim of the interdisciplinary project at TU Darmstadt is to evaluate the potential of spotters (small, powerful tractors) for different configurations and requirements at CT handling terminals. The project aims to develop an evidence-based, novel decision support system that helps to identify framework conditions under which spotters are advantageous. Similarly, the results will provide relevant recommendations for the future-oriented design of autonomously driving spotters.

Our research assistant Johannes Rentschler was recently in Kazakhstan and had the opportunity to visit Almaty as part of the cooperation with the German-Kazakh-University (DKU). As part of the research project “Analysis of transport and storage capacities along the Trans-Caspian Railway Route” he was able to conduct several on-site interviews with Kazakh and international logistics companies to take a look at challenges and potentials of the route. In addition to the project work, the scientific and intercultural exchange was not neglected. In a guest lecture at DKU's LogistikClub, Mr. Rentschler also provided current insights into our research at the Chair. A big thank you to Prof. Wolrad Rommel and Prof. Stefan Dilfer for the excellent organization – and the hospitality. We are looking forward to the next visit!

Am 15. September 2022 hatten wir das Vergnügen, Frau Staatssekretärin Ayse Asar vom Hessischen Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst in unserem Innovationslabor Kombinierter Verkehr im House of Logistics and Mobility (HOLM) in Frankfurt am Main begrüßen zu dürfen. Auf ihrem Rundgang durch das vielseitige Gebäude besuchte sie unser Innovationslabor in Begleitung von ihrem Ministeriumskollegen Gerrit Stratmann und HOLM-Geschäftsführer Michael Kadow und sprach gemeinsam mit Prof. Elbert und unserer Teamassistenz Eva Hartmann über die Chancen und Möglichkeiten, die der Kombinierte Verkehr für Deutschland und die Verkehrswende bietet. Der KV kann einen großen Beitrag dazu leisten, Klimaziele zu erreichen und die große Belastung der deutschen Straßen zu mindern. Sehr treffend äußerte Staatssekretärin Asar: „Das ist die Zukunft.“ Wir bedanken uns für den kurzweiligen und spannenden Austausch und freuen uns auf ein Wiedersehen!

We are pleased to announce that a new and highly topical research project has started at our research area: Together with Prof. Rommel from the German-Kazakh University (DKU) based in Almaty, Prof. Elbert and the project manager Johannes Rentschler are starting the “Analysis of transport and storage capacities along the Trans-Caspian Railway Route”. The cooperation aims not only to promote German-Kazakh research exchange, but also to analyze potentials and challenges of the intensified use of the Trans-Caspian route between July and December 2022 and to find out to what extent the shift of freight shipments to the new routes requires additional time as well as investments in the expansion of transport and storage capacities. A particular challenge, which has been shown in previous research activities, is the storage capacities along the route. Therefore, the project will analyze the storage capacities and derive recommendations for the strategic expansion of these capacities. To this end, expert interviews will be conducted with players in the logistics chain in Germany and Kazakhstan in order to uncover specific challenges. Based on the interviews and the shared data, the transport and storage capacities will be analyzed quantitatively. The project is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Federal Foreign Office Germany. More information about this project can be found here.

As part of the WCTRS Virtual Meet 2022, Prof. Elbert and his team organized two sessions on “Climate Change – The role that freight transport can play to avoid emissions”. The first session was organized in cooperation with the Transportation Research Board’s AT045 Intermodal Freight Transport Committee and highlighted different perspectives from Europe and North America. For both sessions we welcomed Prof. Thierry Vanelslander, who gave an interesting keynote on “How to decarbonize freight transport?”.

It was finally that time again: as part of our Logistics Live! event, we started an excursion at our department again this year. About 20 students of the TU Darmstadt – mainly from our Master's seminar – joined us. Together with Hongjun Wu and Julia Wenzel from Prof. Elbert's team, they set off for Ludwigshafen for two plant tours in one day. First, the tour went through the KTL Kombi-Terminal Ludwigshafen. The students learned more about the handling of intermodal transports in one of the largest container terminals in Europe. After a short lunch break, the tour followed through the extensive BASF plant, where the students gained exciting insights into Bulk Logistics and also into the in-house development of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) to improve internal logistics. A big thank you for the informative tours and exciting insights – we are looking forward to next time!

Das Leben ist ein ständiger Austausch – so auch für unsere Studierenden, die am vergangenen Dienstag die Gelegenheit hatten, das House of Logistics and Mobility kennenzulernen. Dort besuchten die Expert:innen von morgen unter Begleitung von Ralf Elbert zunächst unseren interaktiven Showroom, das „Innovationslabor Kombinierter Verkehr“ und erfuhren mehr über anwendungsorientierte Forschung und die Komplexität der Transportkette im Kombinierten Verkehr. Im Anschluss daran begrüßte sie Holger Bartels im DB Cargo Lab, der ihnen mit großer Begeisterung vom Asset Intelligence Center (AIC) des Labs erzählte, in dem digitale und automatisierte Lösungen entwickelt werden, um den Zugang zum Schienenverkehr zu erleichtern, die Kapazität zu erhöhen und die Steuerung zu optimieren. Mithilfe von KI und dem IOT werden hier plattformübergreifende Herausforderungen im Schienenverkehr bearbeitet, um die Attraktivität und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit zu erhöhen. Besonders praxisnahe Beispiele, wie zustandsabhängige Wartung von Güterwagen oder automatisierte Schadenerkennung, zeigten den Studierenden, wie Studieninhalte in der Praxis Umsetzung finden. Wir bedanken uns herzlich für den spannenden Austausch und freuen uns auf zukünftige Besuche!