Editorial materialfluss 6/19

Martin Schrüfer,

Together, internally and externally

Transport and logistics, transport logistic - capitalized or lowercase, with "and" or without: there has been a lot of talk about the two sectors in recent weeks, fuelled by the world's leading trade fair of the same name in Munich. The one transports goods by land, sea and air, the other stores, picks and packs goods - I am of course simplifying, in reality it is not quite so simple.

"No industry expert insists on the distinction between internal and external logistics." © Thilo Härdtlein

Nevertheless, it is crystal clear that no one who knows the industry will continue to insist on the distinction between internal and external logistics. The fact that intralogistics giant Knapp and the software specialists from Kratzer Automation are joining forces is just one of many signs of this. One can do warehousing, the other software outside the warehouse.

In this way, the gap between delivery and acceptance of the goods by the end customer is closed, shipments are tracked, fully documented and transport damage is recorded. Sounds like the generic term supply chain? Right, because ultimately a company has the entire supply chain in view, from production to the end customer. Solutions are required, not puzzle pieces that the customer has to put together themselves.

Interfaces are becoming the linchpin, whether in internal or external logistics - as LT-managers columnist Anita Würmser put it years ago: "Whoever controls the interfaces controls the market". Before market dominance can be achieved, however, cooperation between companies from the various segments is the first step - a development that can fortunately already be observed in many places.

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The editorial team at materialfluss, like our colleagues at LTmanager, is also thinking outside the box. We will keep an eye on the famous "big picture" of a complete supply chain propagated by Michael ten Hompel in LT-manager 1/19. "What else," I hear my second favorite columnist Intra Logistik remark laconically. She's right.

Best regards

Martin Schrüfer, Managing Editor-in-Chief

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