TRANSFORMATION IS INEVITABLE
LOGISTICS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
BEUMER GROUP
TRANSFORMATION IS INEVITABLE
Industry , economy and society are in the midst of digital transformation . It is a fact that it is inevitable since customers do not want to do without the plus in comfort they have become used to in many areas . But what are the consequences ? Above all , many of the boundaries between industries so far known are losing importance , and that is precisely where the future challenges lie . The questions that arise are : Who is driving transformation , and will the suppliers of today be those of tomorrow ? At any rate , BEUMER Group is getting in shape for the digital future .
Logistics is one of the industries where the influence of digital transformation is particularly strong since digital logistics renders substantial benefits in costs , transparency and speed . The smart integration of digital technologies can especially make intralogistics more efficient and environmentally safe . The ever-growing online commerce is driving this process . The degree of networking , automation and system integration increases along with the progressive development of goods flows in e-commerce and the topic of returns involved in it . Today ' s supply chains are consistently organised and interlinked – from the sources of raw material up to the delivery of products to the customer ' s front door and beyond , up to returns , disposal and recycling .
As a system supplier , BEUMER Group provides e-commerce companies and logistics centres with high-speed sortation systems . Their capacities can be adapted to the constantly increasing demands of users . " We must constantly improve our products to increase our competitiveness so that our customers can reduce their costs and optimise their processes ," explains Dr Christoph Beumer , Chairman and CEO of BEUMER Group based in Beckum , Germany . For this reason , the system supplier has integrated innovation management into his strategy for many years now and applied for nearly 100 patents .
For its consistent and multifaceted commitment in this field , BEUMER Group received the Axia Award 2017 , which is awarded to medium-sized businesses for their successful and sustainable corporate management . In the age of digital transformation , however , it is not only the improvement of internal processes that counts , but also the development of new
116 PECM Issue 34 business models . It is not merely a matter of optimising existing concepts . " We have to create something new . Machinery and systems become more efficient and offer ever-increasing speeds ," says Dr Beumer .
Setting new trends instead of missing them
The worst-case scenario of any industry is simply missing out on new trends . This may have disastrous consequences for market leaders . One example is analogue photography . Agfa , a German company , succeeded in gaining an excellent reputation in more than 100 years of company history . Agfa developed the first developer fluid for films and the first flash lamp , the first safety film and the first fully automatic camera – but not the first digital camera . This was developed by an engineer of Kodak . His employer , however , kept this innovation unused in a secret drawer for a long time . This soon turned out to be a fatal mistake : In the nineteen-nineties , competitors such as Apple , Casio and Canon introduced the first digital cameras for large-scale use onto the market and swept aside the two most successful photographic companies worldwide up to that date . Those who do not face up to digital transformation in time , will be the losers .
" The mechanical engineering and intralogistics industries may suffer the same fate as regards 3D print technology . If it becomes possible to produce a steel girder using this technology in the future , this will revolutionise the entire sector ," predicts Dr Beumer . A completely new kind of warehousing might emerge . Instead of keeping a large stock of spare parts at any time , items would only be printed on demand . The time and number of items could be precisely controlled and expensive ordering processes would be eliminated . " We send the drawings of the spare part to our subsidiaries in Thailand or Brazil , our colleagues print the component via 3D printing and we do not need to transport it by ship across the ocean for weeks ," says Dr Beumer .
Augmented reality saves travel time and costs
It will neither be necessary to send qualified service technicians overseas for weeks . The following scenario is quite conceivable : The responsible employees on site are equipped with 3D glasses . They focus on the object with their mobile device . Through auto-ID characteristics on the logistic element , e . g . a conveyor , and an app specially developed for this purpose , information on this element can be displayed , such as circuit diagrams , maintenance instructions or pin assignments . The required data is displayed on the live image of the camera of the device .