The logistics industry is facing many challenges: Urbanization and increasing traffic are making deliveries in city centres more difficult. At the same time, more and more people are ordering products online, which then need to be delivered as quickly and, ideally, sustainably as possible. The pandemic has further intensified this development. These megatrends require sustainable, technologically innovative solutions for logistics.

In the newly founded Enterprise Lab, SSI Schaefer, provider of intralogistics solutions, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML want to jointly research innovations for the future of logistics. Steffen Bersch, CEO of the SSI Schaefer Group, and Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Michael ten Hompel, Managing Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML, announce their collaboration on the first day of LogiMAT.

SSI Schäfer is the 13th company to opt for this form of joint research between industry and science, following companies such as the KION Group, Keller & Kalmbach, Commerzbank, the European Pallet Association (EPAL), Deutsche Telekom, Dachser, Rhenus, Boehringer-Ingelheim, the BMW Group, DB Schenker, the Würth Group and Sick.

Steffen Bersch sees great potential in the Enterprise Lab: "We are looking forward to the intensive collaboration with the Fraunhofer IML and the other Enterprise Lab partners. We are convinced that the cooperation with the experts will provide us with new insights and impetus for future innovations in intralogistics. This three-year commitment will start on June 1, 2022 and is part of SSI Schaefer's global technology offensive."

Prof. Michael ten Hompel adds: "With SSI Schäfer, another big player in the industry has opted for an Enterprise Lab at Fraunhofer IML. This cooperation format makes it possible for us and our partners to be at the forefront of research and to leverage the disruptive potential of the latest technological developments. With the start of the collaboration with SSI Schäfer, we have now taken an important step towards jointly establishing an internationally visible innovation location for artificial intelligence and Industry 4.0 in Dortmund."

The Enterprise Labs format was created at Fraunhofer IML in 2013 as a new type of collaboration between companies, research and development. The labs are the ecosystem of long-term and agile cooperation with industry. To this end, companies and Fraunhofer IML agree to cooperate for at least three years in agile teams and with flexible research focuses - often in partnership with the associated chairs of TU Dortmund University or the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering ISST. Coworking spaces, professional workshops, laboratories and test facilities are also available for the mixed teams from companies and Fraunhofer researchers in three large halls and in the Enterprise Lab Center at Fraunhofer IML, which was set up specifically for this purpose in 2016. Prototypes can also be built there directly on site and even produced in small series.