Early Learnings from a Logistics Testbed
• Points of contact with many other corporate areas ( assembly or distribution ), which means that many players must be considered during implementation .
• Inaccuracies due to shielding effect with GPS ( in practice the 2 / 3 meters cannot be reached in the testbed ).
Functional Viewpoint :
• The digital twins can be quickly expanded to additional conditions ( height of goods stored ), less complexity than in classic IT projects .
• Third-party services can be integrated => calculation of the indoor position , not all services have to come from the consortium .
Usage Viewpoint :
• Early involvement of responsible intralogistics staff => now the driving power of the project .
• Manufacturer neutrality is important for forklifts , as they are usually mixed fleets .
• Intralogistics is very dynamic => especially in times of COVID-19 , it is not always clear which action has brought about which change in KPIs , because intralogistics is constantly changing due to delivery bottlenecks .
• It is a challenge for companies to optimize intralogistics based on Information Services alone .
• Considerable effort for coordination between companies => Less speed in scaling cooperative business models .
Business Viewpoint :
• Low degree of utilization of forklifts ( approx . 16 %) => Offers great potential for optimization in intralogistics .
• Easier and more cost-effective implementation due to digital twins .
• Fast implementation through combination of capabilities for different companies .
• Optimization of intralogistics is only possible through the interaction of the services of the different partners .
To clarify data ownership , a separate project company was founded , which owns the status data of the digital twins . Descriptive contexts ( e . g ., forklift manufacturer , age , or engine type ) do not lie in the project company but rather remain in the hands of the respective partner of the testbed . Through this separation , data ownership could be clarified and a high level of acceptance for data sharing could be generated . In addition , the joint legal entity offers the possibility for the partners
22 August 2023