Complete Overview Research Projects

Order Picking is one of the most labor- and time-consuming processes in warehouses. The majority of the companies employ manual order picking processes. It is estimated that more than 80 % of warehouses use manual order picking and order picking accounts for about 50 % of the operating costs. Many companies rely on manual processes despite the high cost effect and technical possibilities for automated processes. … read more

A high proportion of manual activities in warehouses as well as high inhomogeneity of the employees’ individual performance cause strong fluctuations of economic target values in manual order picking.

At the same time, manual activities bear a high risk of musculoskeletal diseases, caused by the physical strain connected with those activities. An unsystematic placement of orders without taking into account these strains, increases the risk of those diseases. read more

The coating plant Rentrop, which was established in 1929, provides its customers anticorrosive coating by zinc coatings and galvanizing as well as other services like phosphatizing for their products. Even though the coating plant is running over decades it still offers the demanded qualities just in time with certified production processes. Due to the close contact to universities and unions … read more

A study on the interaction between human and machine in the warehouse of the future

The majority of the German picking warehouses are currently running operations manually according to person to part principle. The automation technology however is undergoing rapid development and induces radical changes to the order picking process and warehouse technology. Already, there are some technical means to support warehouse workers in the commissioning process. Individual human characteristics, such as age, … read more

Today, approximately 75% of warehouses are operated manually with more than half of the operational costs being caused by order picking. At the same time, customers demand the highest service quality and cover themselves by contractually agreed penalties for delays and errors. Improving commissioning processes would, therefore, lead to significant reductions in … read more

In the field of intralogistics the research project “roboKOM” is currently being implemented at the department. The aim of the project is to develop potential areas of application for robotic mobile fulfillment systems (RMFS). In cooperation with the department “Management Science & Operations Research”, procedures for the optimisation of the processes of RMFS are developed, … read more

Due to the increasing transport capacity in container transport and the resulting increase in container handling, many hinterland container terminals are reaching their capacity limits. New innovative solutions are needed to expand existing capacities and increase efficiency in container handling. Characterized by efficiency pressure and the high competition between container terminals, … read more

Volatile freight volume in airfreight handling represents a challenge for an efficient usage of the available storage areas. Shipping volume fluctuates not only quarterly, but also on a weekday basis. At the end of the week there is generally more freight to be transported than at the beginning of the week, whereby … read more

Creating an offer for tendered logistical services of potential or existing costumers is a regularly occurring process. In most of the cases do short tender deadlines encounter the many different design options in the field of order picking. No structured and standardized decision support or modularly constructed system exist, which supports the creation of tender documents. As a result of that, … read more

DB Schenker regularly is given the opportunity to submit an offer for tendered logistical services or improvement of existing solutions of potential or current customers, respectively. At present, the realized logistics concepts are characterized by the individual employee’s mark. This is a result of the mostly short tender deadlines in combination with the many different design options in the field of contract logistics. No structured and standardized decision support or modularly constructed system exist, which … read more

DB Schenker regularly receives an opportunity from potential or existing customers to submit an offer for a logistics service put out to tender or to continuously improve existing solutions. Currently, the logistics concepts developed for each tender or improvement project bear the individual signature of the responsible employee. … read more

DB Schenker regularly receives from potential or existing customers the opportunity to submit an offer for a logistics service put out to tender (here in focus: order-picking in warehouses) or to continuously improve existing warehouses. Currently, the solutions developed for each tender or improvement project bear the individual signature of the responsible employee. read more

The aim of this project is to shift road freight traffic to the more environmentally friendly combined transport (CT), which thus contributes to achieving the climate targets. Due to the limited economic competitiveness of combined transport compared to road freight transport, there has been an increasing concentration of CT services on only a few direct train-capable routes between major economic centers. This led to a reduction in the range of services offered at smaller locations with more dispersed traffic volumes. In particular, the polycentric economic geography in Germany makes it difficult to generate a direct-train-capable volume for an economically viable CT service at all German terminal locations. With the help of innovative production processes and new digital applications, new, innovative approaches to solutions are therefore to be tested in the KV-HUB project, as the existing CT production systems alone will not be able to achieve the shift targets from road to rail planned by the German government. read more

Blockchain technology, which for example forms the basis for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, is considered to have enormous potential in many industries. The electronic validation of certifications offers enormous potential in terms of security standards and increased efficiency in air freight. The supply chain in the area of air cargo shipments is of particularly high-security relevance. Special security requirements apply in this supply chain to provide protection against attacks. The actors involved must, therefore, present and comply with a large number of security measures, which … read more

Data processing supported identification, calculation, and communication of value-enhancing modal shift potentials for rail freight transport.

Both freight transport volume and performance on the road are constantly increasing relative to the railways, resulting in an excessive burden on the road infrastructure. One elementary cause for this development is the lack of transparency of the rail freight transport alternative to increase the value of the shipping agents. Although modal shift potentials are speculated in practice, there is a lack of efficient means to identify, calculate, and communicate them. … read more

The Marlog LBG Logistics GmbH as part of Martrade Group is a logistics service provider offering for instance multimodal door-to-door route planning and shipping services, operating its own terminals as well as conducting various logistics projects around the oil and gas industry. In the study “Common Seawater Supply Pipeline” the construction of a seawater pipeline is considered, which is needed for the exploitation of oil fields located in Iraq. For the construction … read more

Increasing competition and the associated price pressure are forcing road freight carriers to offer the most cost-efficient transport options possible. Platooning is a technology which will help reduce costs and emissions in road freight transport in the future. Platooning is being driven primarily by rapid developments in the field of communications technology and enables trucks to drive behind each other in automated platoons using car-to-car communications. read more

In the future, rail transport will encounter new challenges and changes to which it will have to react. These include social, economic, and political developments that can present both risks and new opportunities for the rail sector.

Against this background, a group of experts – consisting of the Innovation Center for Mobility and Social Change (InnoZ), the consulting firm SCI Verkehr, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences and the Chair of Logistics Services and Transport at the Technical University of Berlin headed by Professor Elbert – has analyzed the transport markets, derived the main trends and drivers up to the year 2020, and identified those areas in which innovations are necessary to … read more

Small and medium-sized forwarders (SME forwarders) have a smaller customer base and therefore usually also a smaller order base compared to large forwarders. Consequently, they have fewer opportunities to reschedule tours ad hoc should train delays occur in the main leg of combined road and rail freight (CT). Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) forecasts, the forecasting quality of which is currently being investigated in projects such as “Aeolix” and “KV4.0”, can be used to dynamically adjust route planning for the pre- and post-rail CT legs. This means that whenever new information becomes available, it can be adjusted to the delay of the main rail leg, which can result in a reduction in waiting time and costs. read more

The upcoming Trans-Eurasian Route, a rail-bound land bridge between Europe, Central Asia and the Chinese hinterland, as part of the Chinese government's One-Belt-One-Road initiative, opens up new interesting opportunities for cross-border transportation, especially for trade and development of the participating countries. In order to foster the use of this route, the chinese government has decided to provide massive subsidies, which are especially interesting for westbound chinese exports. This leads to a large imbalance in the transport volumes, which are about 2/3 westbound and 1/3 eastbound. As a result, unused capacities are attractive in particular for European exports. read more

In 2020, the Federal Ministry of Transport set the target in the “Masterplan Schienenverkehr” of increasing the share of rail freight transport in the modal split in Germany to at least 25 % by 2030. In this way, rail freight transport should make an important contribution to reducing greenhouse gases and thus help protect the climate. The reason for this is that, in comparison, a freight train emits only 15% of the amount of CO2 per tonne-kilometre as a truck. At present, the share of rail freight transport in the modal split is still about 19 %. In a Europe-wide comparison, it is even somewhat lower, at about 13 %. The most used mode of transport in freight transport continues to be road freight transport; this accounts for approx. 71 % of the transport performance in Germany… read more

The additional shift of non-cranable semitrailers from road to rail offers the possibility to increase the utilization of existing rail systems in intermodal transport. 98 percent of German semitrailers are non-cranable and thus offer a large modal shift potential. However, horizontal transshipment technologies have not been able to prevail in the market so far. New approaches now offer solutions for the rapid vertical transshipment of non-cranable semitrailers. These new technologies make … read more

In view of the high traffic volume and the on-going emission problems in German cities, new concepts are needed for urban freight transport. In order to achieve a reduction in the traffic and emissions impact of inbound HGVs, the consolidation and shift of transports to more environmentally friendly alternatives offers significant potential for improvement. Although rail freight transport is generally regarded as an environmentally friendly mode of transport, it has so far rarely been considered in the context of urban freight transport. Although there have been some case-by-case solutions for integrating rail freight transport in the past, there has been no widespread use. Also in research, the integration of the rail freight transport into … read more

The trend of growing transport volumes in maritime transportation is expected to continue. While increasing the size of container vessels is one measure to cope with the growing demand for international container transports for the main-carriage, the corresponding capacities for hinterland transportation must be expanded adequately. Since the share of rail-based hinterland transportation is comparatively high for German deep sea ports, rail connections are of high importance. However, due to the given infrastructure increasing the capacity of … read more

TU Darmstadt examines in cooperation with the Port of Rotterdam and Contargo the market potential of container transports from the South West German hinterland towards the seaports. The project aims at generating a deeper understanding of the stakeholders’ decision behavior. Therefore, the relevant decision criteria for shippers, forwarders, and carriers influencing the port choice as well as the modes and routes of transportation will be identified and analyzed. … read more

Building on a study regarding southwest German hinterland in the HiRo I project, the Department of Corporate Management and Logistics is investigating the market potential of container transports from the NRW hinterland to the seaports of the North Range in the HiRo II project together with the Port of Rotterdam and Contargo. read more

How can a medium-sized forwarding company adapt its business model to respond to environmental changes? This is the core question of the AiF-Project KoVoS. In this project the combined modes of transport and behavioural patterns of different players are investigated by the Technische Universität Darmstadt. The results of the project should help forwarders to select the right transportation mode. Forwarders have the possibility to check their production concept via a web-based guideline. Moreover, the guideline supports … read more

Road freight transport regularly attracts attention through technical and organisational innovations. Examples such as platooning, catenary trucks or future visions of autonomous driving increase the attractiveness of road transport and seem to give it essential characteristics of rail transport. Increasing digitalisation of order processing (e.g. by establishing digital forwarding agents) is making the processing of transport orders increasingly easier and is also increasing the attractiveness of road freight transport. However, road freight transport has a negative impact on the environment and society due to its high external burdens and costs. In particular, the heavy use of infrastructure and the high consumption of resources are increasingly critical in this respect. read more

Increasing customer requirements and by the globalization influenced increasing specialization and fragmentation of logistics and transport chains raise the need of effective and efficient inter-actor networks and communication. IT-based solutions and especially cargo community systems (CCS) play an important role for a fast and flexible inter-actor information exchange. However, decisive for success or failure of these IT-based solutions is most likely not the technology but rather the user behaviour. Especially for CCS which can capture and … read more

Road haulage is responsible for about 27 percent of traffic-related carbon dioxide emissions in Germany. Therefore, in its recent environmental report the German Council of Environmental Advisors recommends the introduction of carbon dioxide threshold values for heavy utility vehicles. But also from the perspective of truck customers a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and the resulting reduction in gasoline consumption, which makes up a high percentage of total vehicle costs, is economically reasonable. Thus, truck manufacturers and … read more

Semi-trailers are the most frequently used loading device in Europe for long-distance transport. But only 1% of the semi-trailers in Germany are vertical lift able and thereby compatible for combined road and trail transport. Therefore, alternative horizontal cargo-handling technologies have been developed. These cargo-handling technologies should enhance the use of combined transport by … read more

The Northern Ports Conference, which brings leading representatives in the field of maritime transport together, will be held for the seventh time this year.

Together with the groups “Extended Service Times in the Hinterland”, “ Extended Gate” and “Data Flow”, the working group “Forecast ”, under the leadership of the Department of Management and Logistics, made … read more

In light of the high and further increasing traffic volume and the continuing emission problems in German cities, new concepts for urban freight transport are needed. In order to achieve a reduction of traffic and emission pollution from freight flows, the shift of freight transport to more environmentally friendly alternatives in particular offers great potential for improvement… read more

The constantly increasing transport volume in maritime container traffic is resulting in expanding capacity shortages in hinterland transport from/to seaports. Due to its high transport efficiency and environmental friendliness intermodal transport by rail is an attractive alternative to road freight transport. In order to further increase transport by rail, intermodal operators must continuously improve their transport services.

This service is substantially defined by the intermodal operator's schedule, which includes the network-wide train movements for the respective period (one year in Germany). In addition to the capacity on offer, this also … read more

The volume of containers transported in maritime shipping is constantly increasing (Statista 2019). As a result, the number of containers transported from and to seaports are increasing likewise causing capacity bottlenecks in hinterland transportation. Due to its high transport efficiency and environmental friendliness intermodal transport by rail is an attractive alternative to road-only freight transport. To further increase transport volumes by rail, intermodal operators must continuously improve the services they offer, especially regarding comprehensive network coverage. One way to realise such an extension of the existing transport network is to identify new hubs and integrate them into the existing schedule. read more

In a changing environment the precise steering of capacities becomes increasingly important for railway operators. While railway operators are interested in a long-term capacity planning in order to increase planning security, the forwarders and ship-owners expect a high flexibility of the railway operator. In the sector of transport logistics, many methods of price differentiation are already common practice. The Air Cargo for example uses a successful … read more

The Rhine-Main region is the geographical center of Europe, the center of the European development axis and one of the most important European economic regions. The economic strength of the companies located here is mainly based on the export and is therefore dependent on efficient and effective transport chains. … read more

Combined road/rail freight transport can be an approach for SME forwarding companies for positioning more successfully in a transport market characterized by low margins and high competitive pressure. However, the large number of interfaces between the modes of transport and the resulting increased complexity of the transport organization represent, in comparison to unimodal road freight transport, essential entry barriers for SME freight forwarders. As one example the train in the main carriage can be missed due to a delayed pre-carriage, which can lead to considerable delays for the final recipient of the transport. The uncertainty resulting from this complexity with … read more

Evonik is a global specialty chemicals company with production sites in 26 countries and business activities in more than 100 countries. The Business Unit Site Services – Business Line Logistics (BL Logistics) runs this cooperative research project together with the chair of Management and Logistics of the TU Darmstadt. The Business Line Logistics is responsible for the coordination of global logistics processes and flows of goods at Evonik and provides logistics services for other companies of the chemical industry. … read more

In many places, traffic-limiting measures can already be observed in urban areas. In addition, due to increasing environmental requirements and growing public attention, extensions of traffic-limiting measures are increasingly being discussed. In the course of this, driving bans and in particular truck transit bans represent a “popular” means of reducing urban traffic pollution. Traffic-limiting measures are often only considered from the point of view of environmental protection. However, it is … read more

Due to the increasing transport capacity in container transport and the resulting increase in container handling, many hinterland container terminals are reaching their capacity limits. New innovative solutions are needed to expand existing capacities and increase efficiency in container handling. Characterized by efficiency pressure and the high competition between container terminals, … read more

Combined road/rail freight transportation (CT) provides different possibilities to relieve the capacity on the road and is more climate-friendly and cost-effective than road freight transportation. However, one of the most significant disadvantages of CT is interface loss occurring while handling road carriers. Thereby, long waiting times arise at the terminals. They are caused, for example, by delays during shunting or craning of preceding load carriers. They commit resources and personnel of the freight forwarders in CT, especially small and medium-sized ones, leading to high opportunity costs. Read more

The practical problems in the European pallet exchange have not noticeably improved in recent years. In particular, forwarders but also shippers and consignees of palletized goods sometimes bear high costs for pallet exchanges, which add up to 4.96 € per circulation. The biggest parts are repair and replacement costs of damaged pallets. With more than half a billion pallets in worldwide circulation this results in high costs for all actors involved. For the loss in value it is of vital importance that pallets are used as required. read more

A delivery time window is a fixed time interval that is available for loading or unloading a truck at the loading ramp of an industrial and commercial enterprise (shipper). Time windows can be booked by freight forwarders by paying a booking fee via so-called web-based time window management systems (TWMS). read more

Predicted container handling volumes in the German seaports require improvements in resource management along the entire transport chain. The VESUHV project therefore concentrates on improving performance in the maritime transport chain by increasing … read more

Time window management systems (TWMS) have led to increasing efficiency at the loading dock in recent years. Primarily industrial and trading companies benefit from this development by increasing transparency, planning reliability, and equal workload in arrivals. For forwarding companies, however, the strict allocation of time slots is becoming a challenge. Due to time window restrictions, they are confronted with increased expenditure and increasing complexity in route planning.

Furthermore, the use of TWMS often has financial consequences, for example, caused by booking fees, waiting times, and inefficiencies in route planning. This problem is highly relevant due to the high-cost pressure on the transport market and the apparent shortage of skilled workers among dispatchers, especially for small and medium-sized forwarding companies. … read more

The market for the courier, express, and parcel services (CEP services) has undergone lasting changes in recent years in line with the dynamic development of e-commerce in Germany. In particular, the number of shipments to private households (2C shipments or private parcels) is constantly increasing. In addition to the rising number of private parcels, there is currently also a trend towards increasing shipment sizes. This development … read more

As a member of the Working Group Aviation under the direction of the Hessian Minister of Economics, Transport and State Development, Dr. Alois Rhiel, a contract was awarded together with the ECAD (European Center for Aviation Development) and the Hessen Agentur (HA) for the conduct of a study on the topic “Aerospace Cluster in Hessen – Value Added Structures and Development Perspectives”.

The Automotive-Cluster Mittelhessen is a network of nine companies in the automotive supply industry in Central Hessen. The common goal of the companies is to establish an internationally recognized center for the automotive supply industry in Central Hesse. The cluster was initiated in December 2006 as part of the CEO Hessen initiative and has since been managed by the Chair of Cluster and value chain management (headed by Professor Elbert) at the Technical University of Darmstadt. The research aims to develop management methods and instruments to realize competitive advantages through cooperation within the cluster. … read more

WirtscConsidering the increasing volatility of the markets and the growing complexity of products and production structures, it is an ever-greater challenge for many companies to keep their inventories at a low level.

Especially when considering logistic networks, transparency over inventory drivers is crucial to control complexity. Efficient inventory management is essential to be able to react appropriately to the volatile market environment. … read more

Increasingly complex sourcing parts, rising procurement volumes and increasing quality requirements cause a rising importance of procurement and purchasing functions of industrial companies. Through a global competition and thus increasing cost pressures, however, it is necessary to meet the requirements in an effective and efficient way. For these reasons, … read more

The world economy today is characterized by increasing global trade relations with a further growing geographical division of labor. Also, the so-called BRIC states (Brazil, Russia, India, China) are experiencing disproportionately high economic growth due to rapid industrialization. A major consequence of this process is a sharp rise in demand for goods transport worldwide. … read more

Together with the planning association conurbation Frankfurt RheinMain, we worked on the Production Sector Report, which is intended to contribute to strengthening the region and the location and thus support the cluster idea. … read more

Clusters don’t exist only around the world but also in almost all industries, such as in the IT, healthcare and automotive sector. Especially Automotive-Clusters are a worldwide phenomenon. According to an initial analysis in Germany 29 Automotive-Clusters with an average of 70 to 80 member companies exist. In a demand-driven logistics consideration, the question, how Clusters can be purposefully accessed and handled as new markets (business development) for logistics services, … read more

Within the framework of the task force of the Bundesvereinigung Logistik (BVL) e.V., the situation of the regional development of logistics is being studied together with the spokespersons of the 26 BVL regional groups. As an initial result, a compilation of the logistics clusters and logistics initiatives researched in Germany was published. Further information can be found here.

Within the framework of the working group of the Bundesvereinigung Logistik (BVL) e.V., the topic of environmental and resource efficiency in logistics in the context of international production chains was studied together with logistics experts from about 20 well-known companies in the industry, trade, and logistics services sectors. The following topics … read more

Competitive advantages through cluster know-how!

The goal is to provide competitive advantages to Hessian M+E companies with cluster methods and instruments. To this end, CEO Hessen is investigating the diverse … read more

3D printing / additive manufacturing has the potential to significantly change conventional procurement, production and distribution. The transport of physical goods is replaced by a digital supply chain, enabling the customized production close to the customer locations. This requires that classic configurations of existing supply chains are questioned and new supply chain designs for digital supply chains with 3D printing are developed. read more

The research project “Dynamo PLV" is supported as a LOEWE priority funding project under the Hessian fund LOEWE (Landes-Offensive zur Entwicklung Wissenschaftlich-ökonomischer Exzellenz). The partners involved are the Technische Universität Darmstadt and the European Business School, EBS.

The aim is to overcome … read more

Continental AG is one of the leading automotive companies in Germany. Continental AG started as a leading tire manufacturer and developed into a provider of advanced and intelligent technologies with more than 170,000 employees in over 46 countries around the globe. In the area of Strategy & Planning for Central Electronic Plants (CEP) a number of projects for … read more

The research project „Indexation as an instrument to account for macroeconomic development for major projects“ is a co-operative research project between the Chair of Management and Logistics from Technische Universität Darmstadt and an international research organisation.

In the context of the co-operative research project it is analysed how indexation … read more

The share of the purely manufacturing industry in added value is shrinking at an extraordinary rate in Hesse, but nowhere else are industry-related services growing so strongly.

The Initiative Industrialism Hessen has therefore set …read more

The aim of the project “Innovation Management for Logistics Service Providers – Guidelines with Best Practice and Interactive Tutorial” is to create a practice-oriented basis, systematic orientation aid, and interactive support to improve the innovation management of logistics service providers – especially SMEs – in Brandenburg. … read more

Today, value adding activities increasingly take place in work-sharing processes. At the same time this specialization leads to an increased need of communication along the value chain. Next to new information flows, new material flows are created. Logistics service providers take over the essential spatial and temporal organization of transport flows with the help of public transport infrastructure. From a production point of view … read more

The project aims to examine the possibilities of establishing a traffic engineering cluster in Hesse and to make recommendations for action for the establishment of a traffic engineering cluster. Based on state-wide expert interviews and workshops … read more

Critical infrastructures (KRITIS), like the supply of energy and water or information and communication systems, are the sensitive nervous system of modern cities. As a result of close unilateral and mutual dependencies between KRITIS, cascading and amplifying effects of … read more

Global operating companies are often confronted with uncertainties resulting from an increasing variety of products, shorter life cycles and a volatile development of demand. In order to cope with this uncertainty flexible, fast and reactive processes are needed. In this context, the so-called postponement-strategy is a possible approach. This approach can be described as the strategic postponement of decisions regarding product differentiation in order to sustain neutral conditions as long as possible. … read more

Increasing customer requirements and by the globalization influenced increasing specialization and fragmentation of logistics and transport chains raise the need of effective and efficient inter-actor networks and communication. IT-based solutions and especially cargo community systems (CCS) play an important role for a fast and flexible inter-actor information exchange. However, decisive for success or failure of these IT-based solutions is most likely not the technology but rather the user behaviour. Especially for CCS which can capture and … read more

The aim of the research project “Management of robust distribution systems” is to develop a scientifically sound and practicable management concept for cooperations in complex distribution systems. This concept should support actors in the distribution system in deploying a logistics management that contributes to risk avoidance and, hence, to a significant improvement in the robustness of the overall system. … read more

The project work is part of the model project “supra-regional Partnerships” – funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building, and Urban Affairs. The project aims to encourage the development of equal living conditions in metropolitan regions and more rural growing regions. The respective potentials will be analyzed, networked, and jointly developed. Using the example … read more

In 2010, the IHK Darmstadt (Chamber of Industry and Commerce) and the TU Darmstadt conducted a first logistics study, which covered the regional structure of the logistics industry in the Darmstadt Rhine Main Neckar region. Based on statistics, company surveys, and interviews with experts, the structure of the industry in the region was surveyed … read more

The Northern Ports Conference, which brings leading representatives in the field of maritime transport together, will be held for the seventh time this year.

Together with the groups “Extended Service Times in the Hinterland”, “ Extended Gate” and “Data Flow”, the working group “Forecast ”, under the leadership of the Department of Management and Logistics, made … read more

In the logistics sector, the growing market of China still lacks a sufficiently qualified workforce. At the same time, employee fluctuation in companies is high as fluctuation rates of 20 percent are not uncommon. In order to cope with the challenge of gaining and retaining employees, a logistics academy in China will be created in cooperation with the Schenker AG, the department of Management and Logistics at the TU Darmstadt and local institutions. … read more

Today, value adding activities increasingly take place in work-sharing processes. At the same time this specialization leads to an increased need of communication along the value chain. Next to new information flows, new material flows are created. Logistics service providers take over the essential spatial and temporal organization of transport flows with the help of public transport infrastructure. Moreover, the increased environmental legislation asks for an increased sustainability of freight traffic. … read more

The Injection Molding Cluster is an association of 12 companies from Northern and Central Hessen. A wide variety of business models and company sizes are represented in the cluster – from manufacturers of basic tools, types to complete suppliers and plastics processors with in-house toolmaking. With its focus on the area of “Injection molding: Tool and mold making for the plastics processing industry”, the cluster project considers the particularly concentrated regional concentration of tool and mold-making companies that are … read more

In times of globalization and constant change, worldwide logistics and SCM are facing global megatrends and thus changing external conditions in the following 3 areas:

• Security, environment, and politics
• Customers and markets
• Technology

These factors, together with the resulting developments in the service provision of companies, have a strong influence on logistics and SCM and lead to new and changed requirements for the design of current and future logistics systems worldwide. … read more

The study aims to derive generally valid cause-and-effect relationships in the development of information and communication technology clusters based on an analysis of the ICT clusters Silicon Valley (USA), Oulu (Finland), Bengaluru (India), and Dresden (Germany). Based on the findings, an evaluation of the cluster potential of the Southern Hesse / Rhine-Main-Neckar region will be made. This region includes … read more

Production and logistics networks of globally operating companies are often highly complex. To create a basis for the assessment and planning of networks despite the high market volatility and complex production and distribution structures, a holistic approach is needed. In this context, the philosophy and methodology of “Total Cost of Ownership” (TCO) provides an approach for considering the relevant costs of the entire supply chain. This overall costs perspective supports a more transparent information basis and understanding of the cost structure of supply chains. Based on the assessment of different scenarios, the … read more

Urbanization describes the steady urban growth of living and economic environments. Whereas, today, half of the world's population is already living in cities, forecasts predict that, in 2030, it will be two thirds. The demographic change towards an aging population will also have obvious impacts. In Europe, it is expected that, by 2050, one third of the population will be over 60 years of age. A further megatrend is … read more

The changes in demand behavior through urbanization and digitalization, the relocation of logistics facilities to the suburbs and strict legal requirements, such as restriction in time of delivery and environmental zones, lead to a rising number of challenges for the execution of logistics services in urban areas. This recent developments threaten to drive out small and medium sized logistics enterprises (SMEs) from their initial regional environment due to their small financial resources and strong regional bond. A possible approach … read more