• Steffen Bersch, CEO of the SSI Schaefer Group, and Dr. Dr. h. c. Michael ten Hompel, Executive Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML, announce their cooperation on the first day of LogiMAT, the international trade show for intralogistics solutions and process management
• Innovations for the future of logistics will be jointly researched in the newly founded Enterprise Lab
• The cooperation, which will initially run for three years, will start on June 1^st, 2022

The logistics industry faces many challenges: Urbanization and increasing traffic are making deliveries in city centers more difficult. At the same time, more and more people are ordering products online for subsequent delivery as quickly as possible and, at best, sustainably. The pandemic has further intensified this development. These megatrends require sustainable, technologically innovative solutions for logistics. In the newly founded Enterprise Lab, SSI Schaefer, one of the world’s largest providers of intralogistics solutions, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML, want to jointly research innovations for the future of logistics.

SSI Schaefer joins companies such as KION Group, Keller & Kalmbach, Commerzbank, European Pallet Association e.V. (EPAL), Deutsche Telekom, Dachser SE, Rhenus SE & Co. KG, Boehringer-Ingelheim, the BMW Group, DB Schenker AG, the Würth Group and Sick AG, the 13th company to opt for this innovative form of joint research between industry and science.

Steffen Bersch, CEO of SSI Schaefer Group, sees great potential in the Enterprise Lab: "We are looking forward to the intensive cooperation with Fraunhofer IML and also with the other Enterprise Lab partners. We are convinced that the cooperation with the experts will provide us with new insights and impulses for future innovations in intralogistics. This commitment, initially concluded for three years, will start on June 1^st, 2022 and is part of SSI Schaefer’s global technology offensive." Prof. Michael ten Hompel, Executive Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML, adds, "With SSI Schaefer, another big player in the industry has opted for an Enterprise Lab at Fraunhofer IML. This cooperation format makes it possible to put us at the forefront of research together with our partners and to leverage the disruption potential of the latest technological developments. With the start of the collaboration with SSI Schaefer, we have now taken an important step towards jointly establishing an internationally visible innovation location for Artificial Intelligence and Industry 4.0 in Dortmund."

The format of the Enterprise Labs originated at Fraunhofer IML in 2013 as a new type of collaboration between companies, research and development. The Labs are the ecosystem of long-term and agile collaboration with the business community. For this purpose, companies and Fraunhofer IML agree on at least three years of cooperation in agile teams and with flexible research focuses – often in partnership with the associated chairs of TU Dortmund University or the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering ISST. Coworking spaces, professional workshops, laboratories and experimental facilities are also available for the mixed teams from companies and the Fraunhofer researchers in three large halls as well as in the Enterprise Lab Center at Fraunhofer IML, which was set up especially in 2016. There, prototypes can also be built directly on site and even manufactured in small batches.

About the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML

The Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML is the partner of choice for integrated logistics research. It works in all fields of internal and external logistics. In addition to materials handling, business process modelling, transportation systems and resource logistics, other current research focal points include artificial intelligence, smart finance, and the Internet of Things. Fraunhofer IML is also working on the implementation of a decentralized, federal, and open platform economy in Germany and Europe with the Silicon Economy major research project. The general management of the Fraunhofer Transport Alliance, bundling the traffic and transportation expertise of 23 Fraunhofer institutes and research institutions, is also located in Dortmund.