Interview with Dr. Volker Lange from the Fraunhofer Institute

In your experience, what are the biggest challenges in load carrier management?

The biggest challenge lies in the lack of awareness of the topic and the associated potential. Load carrier management is a shadowy existence in many companies. Focused on production and distribution, packaging is at the bottom of the list of priorities. If you then look deeper, some efforts end with widespread lack of transparency. In the digital world, data and information are the key to all other effective actions.

Thinking from a greenfield perspective: What would load carrier management look like in the ideal world? What role do trends such as sustainability play in this?

Without load carriers, no goods move. They play a crucial role in logistics, whether in storage, handling or transportation. And we were able to see more than clearly the effects of logistical processes during the pandemic. Sustainability is certainly the order of the day and inefficiencies must be avoided. One major cause is the lack of transparency mentioned above. If, in addition to the original protection and logistics functions, load carriers could also fulfill data and information functions on their way from sender to recipient, they would become the connecting element between the real and virtual world. That is my personal vision: the load carrier as a data provider for better logistics management and an element of sustainability!

“So if load carriers could also fulfill data and information functions on their way from sender to recipient in addition to the original protection and logistics functions, they would become the connecting element between the real and virtual world.”

What steps are necessary to get as close as possible to this ideal image of the status quo?

Digitalization and the associated technological developments now offer a wide range of innovative information and communication tools. From IoT technologies in optical, radio and sensor-based applications to interactive use of smart devices and assistance systems to platform economics with cloud services and the latest AI algorithms. The prerequisites are good to initiate this transformation process and also to be successful. But it is not a matter of course and requires dealing with this issue and overcoming some structures and processes.

What contribution can the logistics shop make?

Do and convince! The logistics bude's portfolio gets to the heart of the matter and offers a systemic service and support to achieve this worthwhile goal. Commitment, innovation and enthusiasm with a great team are a good guarantee for making a significant contribution to sustainability and profitability with the load carrier management of the future.

The logistics shop would like to thank you very much for this exciting interview and the interesting insights into the challenges and potential of load carrier management!

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