Editorial materialfluss 03/2019
The limits to growth
The headline may be misleading - I'm not going to bore you with the Club of Rome or the rumors of a possibly inevitable downturn in Germany. What the Club of Rome think tank propagated just 50 years ago (and which, by the way, is still quoted in many CEO presentations by German intralogistics companies), namely the limits to growth, concerned the global economy.
This is limited; the growth of Stuttgart and its intralogistics trade fair has long been limited. Record figures or not, shoes soiled by clay on dubious and dark makeshift parking lots or not: the trade fair is over the peak, people no longer meet, they hurry past each other at a run and collide with deeply relaxed bargain hunters. All this non-stop for three artificially shortened trade fair days. Tired and out of breath, at the end of the day you still can't find your way to the future of the industry: to the adjacent areas of automation, robotics, IT and production. If Google were to meet the highly specialized German SME sector, if the robotics specialist were to exhibit next to the LogiMAT veteran ("Hall 1, since forever, Mr. Schrüfer!"), that would be great. But there is no room for that. Intralogistics is the interface to and for all industries and technologies. On the site in Stuttgart, which is limited in many respects, the interface is a terminus. Even Hall 11, as envisioned in the trade fair company's Master Plan 2025, will not change this. By then, the train will have left the station.
Accordingly, the Intra Logistik column in issue 1-2/19 and in particular their idea of moving the trade fair to Munich was very well received by exhibitors and readers. We were very pleased to receive your feedback, and I was happy to pass on your approving comments. You can read the response from the trade fair organizers in an upcoming issue, provided it arrives.
Until then, I remain, with best regards, as your
Martin Schrüfer
Managing Editor-in-Chief
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