Editorial Material Flow 05/2017
Shaping the process
These are exciting times. Not only in terms of the global political situation. But also in intralogistics. Big is buying small, industrial trucks are becoming autonomous all-rounders (and vice versa, of course), intralogistics providers are becoming general contractors for the distribution center of the future. Weights and market shares are shifting, as are the focus and areas of responsibility within companies. Internal and external logistics now only exist in the material flow anthologies of decades gone by. "But what comes next? What's the title of the next chapter?" sings the pop rock band Sportfreunde Stiller. A possible title for the next chapter could be "Process Competence" or "Supply Chain Excellence".
Because wherever you go and whoever you talk to in the industry, everyone agrees when it comes to holistic models. How the goods come in and how they go out of the warehouse is something that the industry has mastered for decades and is no longer a USP in view of the level of perfection that German intralogistics providers in particular have achieved. Instead, process expertise is what counts, as SSI Schaefer demonstrates in our new supplement Material Flow Direct (see below).
"Goods in and goods out - that dominates the industry. Process expertise is becoming more and more important."
And what about the CeMAT yay-or-nay debate, which has already been mentioned several times here and by our dear Ms. Intra? It's been stagnating and will only gain new momentum when it becomes increasingly clear what the trade fair specialists actually have in mind for 2018, conceptually speaking. Which wouldn't hurt for the foreign CeMAT spin-offs either, according to Intra's commentary (as always on page 66).
Kind regards from Haar,
Martin SchrüferManaging Editor-in-Chief Material Flow, LT-manager
New supplement
Materialflussdirekt: E-Commerce Raising the curtain for Materialfluss direkt - under this title, the editorial team presents supplements on industry topics at irregular intervals. Materialfluss direkt: E-Commerce - created in collaboration with intralogistics specialist SSI Schäfer - is the first. Is your Materialfluss direkt missing in this issue? Order a free copy by sending an e-mail to [email protected].
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