ten Hompel has been a university lecturer at TU Dortmund University for 18 years now and is responsible for the Material Flow Systems research area at Fraunhofer IML. His studies in electrical engineering with a specialization in computer engineering at RWTH Aachen University formed the basis for the combination of hardware and software technologies that he still stands for today. In 1988, following his studies, he founded GamBit GmbH (now Vanderlande Industries Logistics Software GmbH), of which he remained managing partner until 2000. His company had already attracted attention with major projects, including a process control project for the aerospace giant Airbus. He received his doctorate from the University of Witten/Herdecke in 1991. Since 2000, he has been a full professor at the Chair of Materials Handling and Warehousing at TU Dortmund University and Director of the Fraunhofer IML, which he took over as Managing Director in 2004.

Numerous innovations in logistics can be traced back directly to ten Hompel's research. For example, he is considered the inventor of shuttle technology in intralogistics, which he has been developing into cellular conveyor technology for several years. This technology is based on autonomous, self-controlling shuttles that take over storage and transportation tasks. In addition, ten Hompel has made a name for himself in Germany as one of the fathers of the Internet of Things - a vision that experienced a major breakthrough in 2018 thanks to various developments from the institute in which artificial intelligence algorithms act decentrally on the smallest cyber-physical systems. The many years of work on this idea led, among other things, to the TV show "Computerclub" naming ten Hompel the Pope of the Internet of Things back in 2008.

As the initiator of the EffizienzCluster LogistikRuhr, which was recognized as a leading-edge cluster by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in 2010, he has also managed to free logistics from its reputation as an auxiliary discipline and establish it as a fully recognized scientific discipline.

With the Enterprise Lab Center opened in 2016, ten Hompel also broke new ground in the dynamic collaboration between science and business. And with the "Innovation Lab Hybrid Services in Logistics" launched in 2018, he is setting new standards in collaboration between man and machine at the high-tech location of Dortmund. He is also considered a pioneer with regard to the future of human work - from the vision of a social networked industry to bio-intelligent systems.