Schlüter-Systems KG, a the global supplier of system solutions for tile and natural stone installation, needed seamless, fast, scalable logistics across its 35,000 m² facility. From its headquarters in Iserlohn, Germany, the company supplies wholesalers, construction sites, and tile warehouses around the world. As the former craftsman business has grown into a globally operating enterprise, the demands on its logistics and warehouse management have increased significantly.

In response, Schlüter-Systems has accelerated the digitalization of its warehouse operations across the group and built a new central warehouse at its headquarters. At the heart of this transformation is the LFS warehouse management system from EPG (Ehrhardt Partner Group), which ensures the coordination of all logistics processes. The result: noticeably improved efficiency, maximum flexibility, and a significantly lower error rate.

Schlüter-Systems offers a wide range of products, including various types of Schlüter profiles, electric and hydronic radiant heating systems, drainage solutions, and much more. With a portfolio of over 12,000 items, the company has successfully expanded into new markets and continuously enhanced its logistics capabilities. At its new warehouse in Iserlohn, Schlüter-Systems stocks approximately 12,000 products across 35,000 square meters and two levels.

From Driverless Transport Systems to Overhead Monorails

Fast shipping requires fast logistics — and a high-performance warehouse management system. As the previous WMS and ERP systems could no longer meet the demands of the new warehouse, Schlüter-Systems decided it was time for a change. After a thorough and lengthy selection process, the company chose the LFS warehouse management system.

“In our new central warehouse, we’ve implemented a very high level of automation — with three automated high-bay storage systems, a driverless transport system, an automated small-parts warehouse, and a self-driving overhead monorail,” says Florian Schmidt, Head of Logistics at Schlüter-Systems. “The main challenge was getting the WMS to seamlessly connect all these systems and coordinate the material flow without disruption.”

By implementing LFS, Schlüter-Systems aimed to enhance picking and packing strategies, optimize material flow, and make processes more efficient and transparent. Thanks to close collaboration with the Schlüter-Systems project team, the supply chain specialists at EPG successfully implemented LFS at the site and coordinated all automation solutions within just a few months. “For the suspended monorail system, which can transport various items with a total weight of up to 1.3 tons, there was previously no existing interface,” explains EPG Project Manager Markus Pauly. “We developed a custom connection from the ground up to ensure seamless integration into the system.”

Efficient, Ergonomic, Error-Free

The modular LFS system helps Schlüter-Systems design automation elements at different communication levels and interfaces with shipping service providers in a sustainable and efficient way. “One of the challenges was coordinating the wide variety and complexity of components in day-to-day operations,” says Schmidt.

In addition to the driverless transport system (FTS), the company also uses the cloud-based International Shipping System (ISS), which offers user-friendly features like Track & Trace, interfaces with over 250 shipping carriers, and fully automated shipping label printing.

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Think of a private jet and you might imagine celebrities, millionaires and high-flying business owners summoning a first-class flight to transport them to a luxury location. Yet, these planes are also an essential tool in healthcare logistics, helping transport vital equipment around the globe, and often enabling medicine, blood and organs to reach their destination quicker than any commercial aircraft could, writes Vickie Clark, MD of V Jets.

Life and death stakes

Across the world, 85 million units of blood are transfused every year – with many requiring a co-ordinated logistics effort to reach the patient in a timely manner. Individuals in a critical condition need their blood transfusion to begin within just a few hours, to prevent life-threatening complications.

In the case of organ donation, more sensitive organs such as the heart and lungs must be transplanted within four to six hours, otherwise they risk no longer being viable. Even more resilient organs such as the liver and kidneys require transplantation within 12 hours and 24 to 36 hours respectively to maximise the chance of successful surgery (Donor Alliance).

Even where a commercial airline route could feasibly be used to transport the donor organ, there are limitations involved with this choice: for example, in America the organ must arrive at the airport between an hour and two hours before flight departure, and the cargo office at the destination airport must be open when the flight arrives to ensure the organ can be collected by a courier. The organs are also stored within the cargo hold alongside the checked-in baggage of the flight’s passengers, presenting a potential risk when it comes to safe transportation. In fact, the US Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network cites 2.5% of unused organs can’t be donated due to transport issues.

Luxury lifesavers

Why are private jets preferable? Research suggests private jets may be up to five times quicker end-to-end than commercial airlines or land ambulances when it comes to transporting organs, blood donations and other medical equipment.

This is due to a combination of reasons, not least the ability to use smaller airports, more flexible routes, and faster flight speeds. A jet can be ready to go in as little as two hours after a request has been submitted – and can often land at an airport closer to the destination medical centre, or even a field hospital or rural community. This is especially crucial to allow those in remote areas access to the same kind of medical intervention as their urban counterparts, whose medical facilities are generally nearer a large, commercial airport.

If you’re racing against the clock, there is no room for delays – in those situations, private planes aren’t just moving cargo, they’re delivering hope. When it comes to the use of private jets to transport medical supplies, it’s important to remember the reality – that at least one life can be normally be saved but only if the transportation is swift.

There are so many examples of such life-saving missions, like the 7-year-old boy who needed an emergency transfusion after a serious accident in the Caribbean. His rare blood type was not available locally and there were no commercial flights due to land on the island for the next 48 hours – so a private jet delivered the much-needed blood from Miami in less than five hours.

Sometimes, it’s not an isolated incident but a full-scale crisis which requires private planes to be drafted in to support medics on the ground. In Sudan in 2023, commercial airlines suspended services due to the conflict there, but aid organisations were desperate for medical supplies, utilising private jets to ensure they arrived as quickly as possible.

And in West Africa, when there was an Ebola flare-up, a private jet flew in hazmat suits, mobile isolation units and specialised antivirals for WHO doctors. The supplies arrived in ten hours, compared to the three days it would have taken to transport them commercially. When roads are destroyed, airports are shut, and time is running out, a private jet can still make it through, giving hope to those previously battling against seemingly unbeatable odds. This is the side of private aviation that people don’t see – flying stem cells, vaccines, and hearts to patients in need.

Whether due to natural disaster, political unrest, a sudden disease outbreak, or a life hanging in the balance due to illness or accident, time and efficiency is of the essence – and that’s when the private aviation sector proves its about more than just A-listers and corporate giants: it’s capable of saving lives.

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The fifth edition of IFS Connect 2025 drew a record-breaking crowd of more than 500 participants from across Central and Eastern Europe, reinforcing the event’s growing significance as a premier platform for digital innovation in logistics, manufacturing, and enterprise operations, reports Peter MacLeod, Logistics Business Editor.

Held in Warsaw, the conference brought together industry leaders, customers, and technology partners to explore how Industrial AI and cloud-based ERP solutions are transforming business operations in high-impact sectors. At the heart of the event was the unveiling of customer success stories, new product insights, and recognition of standout organisations through IFS’s Business Transformation Awards.

Industrial AI Takes Centre Stage

This year’s IFS Connect focused heavily on Industrial AI, positioning it as the foundation for modern enterprise strategy. The theme resonated with attendees from industries such as logistics, energy, and manufacturing, where automation, predictive analytics, and end-to-end process integration are mission-critical.

“Industrial AI is no longer an option, it is the foundation of modern business,” said Marek Głazowski, President of IFS Poland & Eastern Europe. “It allows companies not just to optimise operations, but to forecast and adapt to future disruptions.”

Cathie Hall, IFS Chief Customer Officer, added: “AI is the biggest shift since the cloud. We’ve invested 20% of our R&D budget into AI over the past year, and demand for IFS.ai is accelerating. Our customers are ready, and so are we.”

Awards Celebrate Digital Leadership

A highlight of the event was the IFS Business Transformation Awards, which honoured companies achieving exceptional progress in digital transformation. Winners included:

• Grupa Kęty: Recognised as a Business Transformation Leader for its successful launch of IFS Cloud in its Extruded Products segment. The ERP rollout covered sales, logistics, finance, warehouse management, and production planning, benefiting over 6,000 employees and integrating with MES, TMS, and other systems.
• Wuteh and ZPAS: Also named in the Business Transformation Leader category for their advances in process optimisation and full-scale IFS Cloud integration, respectively.
• GZ Media (CZ): Honoured as Innovative Business for leveraging IFS Cloud to enhance operational agility in vinyl record production.
• Kilargo: Received the Implementation Excellence award for its smooth system deployment in the food and beverage sector.
• Gamet: Named Reference Client of the Year for its collaborative knowledge-sharing efforts within the IFS ecosystem.
• KAN: Awarded Digital Transformation Architect for leading bold change in the installation systems industry.
• Arkadiusz Szafrański of Mikomax: Named the first-ever IFS Brand Ambassador for championing IFS values and technology adoption.

“These companies exemplify how forward-thinking strategy, combined with modern tools like IFS Cloud, leads to measurable business success,” said Głazowski.

ERP Benchmark

One of the most compelling case studies at IFS Connect was that of Grupa Kęty, a leader in aluminium profiles and components. The company announced the completion of the first phase of its IFS Cloud deployment, aimed at streamlining operations and improving data flow across departments such as production, logistics, and finance.

“This was more than an IT project, it was a company-wide transformation,” said Roch Jasiaczek, IT Director at Grupa Kęty. “The success lies in close collaboration between our teams and IFS, enabling us to customise solutions for real-world industry needs.” “We now have a scalable, flexible platform that supports both current needs and future expansion,” added Rafał Warpechowski, CFO of Grupa Kęty.

As IFS Connect 2025 wrapped up, one message stood clear: Industrial AI and integrated cloud systems are reshaping logistics and manufacturing at scale. From predictive maintenance to real-time process automation, companies embracing digital transformation are gaining the agility needed to stay competitive in a volatile market. With continued investment in AI and strong partnerships across sectors, IFS looks well-placed to play a pivotal role in the digital future of B2B operations.

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Industrial doors from Efaflex lead the world because they combine premium manufacturing, super high-speed operation and exciting energy-saving opportunities, writes Paul Hamblin, Logistics Business Features Editor.

Efaflex builds and supplies some of the world’s fastest high-speed industrial doors for a wide range of settings – 16 sectors at the most recent count – and you know the German-founded company is confident of that speed because the company familiar logo carries the image of a cheetah, the world’s fastest land animal. That’s confidence.

Such confidence can often be misplaced, of course. The fact that Efaflex delivers on its promises is testament to the long-term global reach and reputation of the company. Even doors with a 10,000mm width can achieve a door leaf speed of 1 m/s. The company says its fastest vertically opening high-speed door is able to achieve top speeds of more than 4 m/s.

Technological and engineering excellence are core to the Efaflex success story. Unique spiral technology enables the door to be both faster and lighter than the competition, while safety is ensured by a myriad range of sensors, all supplied specifically to suit customer needs. “Our consultants can prescribe exactly what you as a customer require,” Head of Marketing Christian Jacob (pictured below) tells me. “There is an individual light and sensor grid inside every door we produce. It will integrate with the manual labour workforce or seamlessly integrate in a Smart warehouse setting incorporating AGVs and AMRs,” he adds.

All doors are manufactured at the company’s plant in the Czech Republic. The latest generation continues to push the boundaries. “It’s about more platform thinking in important areas such as spare parts and the interior of the door,” explains Jacob. “So, even if the shutters vary, each door will have the same framework, which facilitates spare parts efficiency as well as overall maintenance. The beauty is all on the inside, if you like.”

Enabling Customer Sustainability

A central focus of the company’s ethos is to assist in the sustainability efforts of its customers. “We do that by ensuring we provide the door which best saves customer energy consumption,” he reveals. “We start that process directly with the customer, establishing what matters to them so that we can then add to their sustainability story. This is about starting from the customer’s perspective.”

Christian Jacob, Efaflex

Efaflex has introduced EFA-EnergySaver, an easy-to-use tool available to all visitors to its website. Applicable by use case – workshop, production facility or warehouse – in a few clicks you can gain a detailed comparison of potential energy savings via scrutiny of such details as door size and dimensions, door speed, number of doors, opening cycles per day, productive days per year and heating/cooling costs.

All Efaflex doors are high-speed, whether spiral, roll-up or folding, or a clean room or machine protection door. How do customers know which type should be selected, though? “It depends on the hole in the wall and where it is,” he laughs, before elaborating, “You won’t have a fabric door in an outdoor-setting, for instance.”

He won’t reveal how many doors Efaflex installs per year across the globe, other than to quote a figure “in the thousands”. This is fair enough: Efaflex remains a family-owned business and is under no obligation to quote such figures.

Jacob is in broad agreement with the current sentiments around wider market uncertainty, but counters that Efaflex’s order book is “vivid”, adding that sectoral ups and downs are part of business. “We supply 16 different verticals,” he adds. “In these 16, one will always be under pressure; at the moment, automotive is a good example of that, so two current strong points for us, for instance, are in food and in supplying doors for public parking security in urban environments.”

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Bonfiglioli’s tailored drive solutions are at the heart of a smarter, more connected future for manufacturers of AGVs and AMRs, writes Editor Peter MacLeod.

As demand for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and automated guided vehicles (AGVs) surges across logistics and warehouse environments, Bonfiglioli, a long-established Italian manufacturer of gear motors and drive systems, is turning its attention to providing customised, compact, and connected solutions for OEMs. Cristiano Cattan, Global Key Account Manager, sat down with us at LogiMAT to discuss the company’s evolution and innovation trajectory.

“We’re seeing significant growth in the AMR space,” Cattan explains. “And what we’ve learned is that this is a very different business from traditional industrial markets. OEMs don’t want off-the-shelf components, they want tailored solutions.”

Bonfiglioli, known historically for industrial gearboxes, continues to expand its offering of integrated systems that combine motors, gear units, and drive controllers. This shift is more than a product evolution, it’s a strategic move to meet customer demands for turnkey solutions and to help them reduce their roster of component suppliers.

“Today, customers are coming to us not for a gearbox, but for a compact, all-in-one drive solution,” says Cattan. “They’re saying, ‘Here’s the performance spec and physical dimensions, can you build something that fits?’ And we’re answering yes, with a collaborative engineering approach between their R&D and ours.”

Valued Partner

This high-touch engagement has made Bonfiglioli a valued partner for OEMs building AMRs and AGVs, especially in space-constrained applications. It’s also pushing the company deeper into electronic integration. The 2023 acquisition of Selcom Group, an Italian electronics manufacturer, has bolstered Bonfiglioli’s in-house capabilities in drive control and edge computing, opening the door to smarter, IoT-enabled systems.

“We now offer solutions that include condition monitoring and predictive maintenance,” says Cattan. “Our gear motors can report live data on temperature, vibration and load. That means operators can identify wear or potential failures before they cause downtime.”

These insights are transmitted either through the customer’s PLC or via Bonfiglioli’s edge computing devices, enabling residual lifetime analysis of components like bearings and motors. “Customers don’t want to stop a line, even for a second,” Cattan (pictured below) adds. “So being able to plan maintenance before failure is a real value-add.”

Cristiano Cattan, Bonfiglioli

Broad Portfolio

Despite these advances, Bonfiglioli’s challenge remains market perception. “We’re still seen by many as just a gearbox supplier,” Cattan says. “But we have a broad portfolio and deep flexibility to go beyond it. We want the industry to know that Bonfiglioli offers full, intelligent drive solutions.”

Indeed, that flexibility has proven crucial, not only in AMRs but also in fixed logistics applications. While Bonfiglioli isn’t embedded in global giants such as Amazon or DHL, Cattan notes a rising interest in their smart conveyor solutions, especially for airport baggage handling and intralogistics systems.

As it evolves its product portfolio, Bonfiglioli is also positioned for a global customer base. “We have production and service locations in Europe, the US, China, and India,” says Cattan. “That global footprint is important for OEMs looking for consistent quality and local support in every major market.”

Looking ahead, Bonfiglioli is preparing to launch a new integrated AGV drive solution later this year. “It’s made entirely in Italy – motor, gear, controller, all in one. That gives us total control over quality and design, and helps our customers reduce their supplier base without compromising performance.”

For Bonfiglioli, the future is compact, smart, and collaborative. And as the AMR and logistics sectors continue to demand speed, flexibility and intelligence, it is really gearing up to meet it.

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Ziegler, a multimodal logistics provider, has taken a major step forward in digitalising and streamlining its warehouse operations through the deployment of DexoryView from Dexory, a leading robotics and data intelligence company. Following a recent implementation, Ziegler has already seen improvements in stock accuracy, process enforcement and operational efficiency at one of its key UK sites that comprises a complex layout and over 55,000 pallet locations.

Faced with the challenge of high stock throughput and a vast storage area, Ziegler realised that it needed to improve the visibility and integrity of its warehouse data. Operating in an industry where even a minor scanning error can have a significant impact, Ziegler wanted to reduce time spent on manual cycle counting, ensure it was able to eliminate stock loss and improve real-time visibility on the state of its key UK warehouse. After exploring options including automated shuttle racking and drone-based solutions, the company turned to DexoryView. The solution combines state-of-the-art robotics technologies and AI-powered digital twin platform to provide real-time intelligence of the health and integrity of the entire warehouse.

“We recognised that even a 1% miss-scan rate could create major issues, from stock rotation delays to customer service impacts,” says Ignas Saknaitis, Divisional General Manager for Logistics at Ziegler. “Our big turning point came after a full stock take took four days and a full weekend of working, with stock anomalies requiring weeks of investigation. With DexoryView, we can now identify and resolve issues in real time before they escalate.”

Real-time data intelligence platform detects inefficiencies and enhances goods movement accuracy

Ziegler has seen a number of benefits in just a month since going live with the solution. It has been able to locate missing pallets, identify mispicks earlier and has been able to address operational pain points such as incorrectly labelled pallets and misplaced inventory, without costly warehouse shutdowns. One of the core benefits of DexoryView has been that Ziegler is now able to pinpoint recurring errors and target root causes of these issues, making the operations more efficient and seamless.

Due to these benefits, Ziegler is seeing a cultural shift in how it approaches inventory control, which the company sees leading to better operational excellence and customer satisfaction.

Slash Downtime

“In busy warehouse environments there is no room for guesswork and outdated data can lead to deliveries being returned and ultimately impact customer satisfaction,” says Oana Jinga, Chief Commercial and Product Officer and Co-Founder at Dexory. “We are working together with Ziegler to replace guesswork with insight and are allowing the business to find root causes to issues that in turn will help their business become more efficient.”

Ziegler is already looking into the future with DexoryView. It is planning on using the new optimisation functionalities to optimise warehouse layouts based on movement trends. It is also aiming to provide its customers with live access to inventory data for additional peace of mind. There are also plans to expand the rollout of the technology to other Ziegler sites after ROI review from the first deployment.

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New Era of Warehouse Intelligence

Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) eCommerce sales keep increasing. Good news for retailers, logistics and warehouse operators, but not necessarily if many items are sent back after receipt. David Priestman reports on how reverse logistics can be made less challenging.

“Amazon-style returns for D2C brands,” is what ReturnBear’s CEO, Sylvia Ng (pictured, below), told me her company can offer when we met at Manifest Las Vegas. International ecommerce returns management is the forte and niche of the Canadian company she leads. “Some buyers know they will return items when they buy them,” she states.

Returns rates in the D2C brand sector average a whopping 35%, with clothing and fashion being the largest sector for returns by far. “Electronics, home goods, and beauty products tend to have high return rates,” Ng adds. “Electronic goods often face issues with buyer’s remorse or compatibility concerns, while homeware goods like furniture can suffer from size mismatches.”

Sylvia Ng

Returns cause inevitable supply chain headaches, but how can they be ameliorated? As a 4PL (fourth party logistics operator) ReturnBear, based in Toronto, work with brands to lessen the costs and complications of returned, unwanted goods. In 2024, ReturnBear surpassed the 1 million returns milestone, processing over 1 million returns through its end-to-end system, which includes a returns portal and automation software.

“Merchants face high costs and returns take too long,” says Ng, adding that sustainability issues also press brands and retailers to lessen the, often, long load back. When a consumer wants to return one item or more and be refunded a retailer merchant first has to provide them with a shipping address label. Ideally, the consumer should get an instant refund but do the first mile of the return journey – namely to take the re-packaged parcel(s) to a returns centre.

Keeping it Local

If a brand merchant sells in multiple countries ReturnBear keeps the products local. The company has such a facility near us, in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, that receives all British returned items and keeps them in the UK for re-despatching. When the item(s) are received back at the returns centre they can be checked, inspected and re-packaged or tagged ready for delivery to the next customer, without going all the way back to the retailer’s warehouse or factory, which is usually far from the consumer and often in a different country.

“Merchants can easily sell in a hundred countries overnight using global selling platforms,” Ng tells me, “but there is no easy way to get returns back. Our expansion into the UK market is part of our vision to be the first global end-to-end platform for single-day returns. The new MK facility is run in partnership with Reship and the expansion coincides with us extending our support to clients.” By entering the UK market, ReturnBear can now offer a suite of reverse logistics solutions to enable merchant retailers to provide good experiences without a direct local presence.

“Cross-border eCommerce continues to outpace domestic growth, driven by increasing consumer confidence in international shopping and the expansion of global fulfilment networks,” Ng says. “However, challenges like returns, duties, tariffs, and logistics complexities remain key pain points – ones that we help brands navigate.” There is a need to streamline returns processes and improve customer experience.

ReturnBear offer merchants package-free and label-free convenient return points as an alternative to returning items by post. The company claims that as much as half of return logistics costs can be saved by this method. There are over 1000 such return drop-off points in Canada, covering 80% of the population there. “While Canada is our primary operational base, we operate in the US, UK and Australia with dedicated returns warehouses that help merchants receive, verify, and process returns. Where applicable we forward fulfil the returned inventory to local customers, preventing the need for merchants to ship product back to centralized warehouses that are typically across borders or oceans. With this service we reduce the distance travelled by returns by 40% and therefore reduce emissions by the same amount. We’re seeing strong demand in the US, UK, and Australia for this service which is very aligned with our strategic expansion.”

Stopping Fraud

Cross border returns, with pre-clearance, commercial invoices and shipping manifests are provided. What about bulk shipments? “Our batch consolidation model allows brands to reduce the cost and environmental impact of returns by grouping multiple returned items together before they are shipped back to a warehouse or resale location. Instead of processing individual return shipments, items are collected at regional hubs and shipped in bulk – lowering logistics costs, reducing carbon footprint, and improving efficiency.”

“Fraud prevention is important, so we verify that the correct item has been returned if a refund has been actioned by the scanning of the returns shipping label,” Ng explains. “Merchants can easily sell in a hundred countries overnight using global selling platforms. But there is no easy way to get returns back. Our expansion into the UK market is part of our vision to be the first global end-to-end platform for single-day returns,” she added. “Consumers check for convenient returns before buying, and merchants must meet consumers’ expectations to grow in local markets. ReturnBear provides a simple way to do that.” And we all must keep the consumer happy, right?

Logistics Business magazine, together with the Information Factory, have produced a new 8 page digital magazine on logistics cost allocation: how to calculate and allocate costs in logistics operations. Editor Peter MacLeod talks to iFactory CEO Robert Jordan to understand how transport and distribution businesses can use a tool that accurately determines costs. Learn how to drive revenue and boost profits in logistics.

Read the free eBook here.

From Black Box to Industry-Leading Solution

A few years ago, The Information Factory produced a Cost Allocation Tool for DHL Express that today is deployed globally by the renowned logistics and courier company. It has now been developed into a tool suitable for the broader logistics sector: LogiCAT has the potential to offer users a true competitive advantage.

Operating in a commercial landscape with these wafer-thin margins means that understanding the true cost of operations has never been more critical. Yet, somehow, many organisations still seem to be operating with only limited visibility into their actual costs, relying on aggregated figures and educated guesswork that can often fail to inspire confidence among decision-makers, finance departments or those in customer-facing roles who need to know how much they have to play with when neck-deep in negotiations with a client.

Logistics Cost Allocation

Logistics Cost Allocation

This was precisely the challenge facing DHL Express several years ago, according to Robert Jordan, Founder and CEO of The Information Factory. “A few years ago, DHL reviewed its costing approach with a view to ‘turbocharging’ it, ” Jordan explains. “DHL, being extremely customer-focused, approached it from the customer end. They wanted to get customer profitability sorted, because they discovered many customers were engaging them for services that weren’t profitable.”

Read the full story now

The fundamental question was simple yet profound: How do you accurately determine profitability? Traditional costing methods based on the previously mentioned largely estimated calculations had led to the creation of an environment where stakeholders didn’t fully trust the cost data they were seeing. “Someone clever in finance insisted that the costing had to reconcile to the general ledger,” says Jordan. “They took the general ledger and said, ‘these are our costs because we know what they are.’ It has to absolutely reconcile to the general ledger.”

The result was a shift to Activity-Based Costing (ABC), initially implemented as what Jordan describes as a “black box” system, namely opaque, difficult to understand and hard to modify. The Information Factory’s mandate was to replace this with a transparent solution offering clear visibility into costing rules and their application, along with the ability to refine these rules over time.

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Intralogistics customers partnering with Beumer, a provider of warehouse automation technology, can expect step-change improvement in processes. The wins include space, time and cost efficiencies, with better tracking and security as a bonus. Paul Hamblin meets the team.

For Beumer Group, successful business relationships are about partnership. The company bills itself as the ‘Partner of Choice’, validated by the continuing success of the company’s proven technologies, and delivery on the promises made to its partners.

Gregor Baumeister, Director, Warehousing and Distribution Logistics Systems, tells me he was very happy with the company’s LogiMAT this year, describing “concrete project discussions with budgets and timelines” as part of an overall positive sentiment throughout the halls. This perhaps contrasts with ProMat a week later, where his American colleagues described a more cautious and uncertain atmosphere, no doubt due in no small part to the blizzard of tariff announcements and amendments from the Trump administration in the first part of 2025.

End-to-end Automation Provision

At LogiMAT 2024, Beumer focused on ‘Lights Out’ warehouse technology; this year the company highlighted its capabilities in the delivery of end-to-end automation in DCs.

For Gregor Baumeister (pictured below), the argument that automation represents a damaging replacement of human labour is bogus. “The world talks a lot about automation reducing labour opportunities, but I think it’s more accurate to say that our customers are unable to source that labour any longer simply because it is no longer available. So, in reality, the drive towards higher levels of automation is more accurately an enabler to stay in business. That’s the key difference. And with our systems you can create a fully automatic line of warehouse processes.”

Gregor Baumeister, Beumer

He outlines the Beumer product offering. “If you look at the processes in a DC, typically you’ve got goods receiving, then storage facilities, and retrieval via a shuttle or cube system basically bringing products to people,” he explains. “Beumer starts at the point of bringing those goods to people, then we go downstream from there, either in a pouch system or via a loop or line sortation system, including packaging and shipping to customers.”

The company demonstrated full automation of this process in Stuttgart. A significant advance is the automatic unloadable pouch, with which Beumer provides customers – should they choose to do so – with the facility to remove another layer of human interaction on a product’s journey to the end consumer. “Customer partners have the option of feeding a pouch system either via an operator placed at an ergonomic workstation or by using a robot. We will collaborate with customers to provide them with the most appropriate choice for their needs,” he reports. “The pouch system does its magic and the product can then be directly packaged by machine. If it needs special packaging – stretch-wrapping for high-value goods perhaps – this too is possible. All preferences are at the behest of the customer partner.”

Typically, pouch technology is tailored to smaller items in the 550mm x 420mm x 280mm dimensional category. “You can handle these items very effectively in a pouch,” he continues. “Our system handles items up to 7kg each, which is 40% more than other systems can do, and is particularly popular in fashion and general e-commerce settings. In those categories, 70-80% of parcels or bags are that size. Pouch technology is also developing a growing reputation in what we call ‘e-pharma’ handling.”

He points out further space-exploitation benefits of pouch technology. “By hanging the pouch system from the roof, we can use the third dimension in the warehouse. It is super space-efficient, with very high dynamic pick rates and order fulfilment rates. It’s very efficient overall in terms of space, labour, time, and also in tracking and traceability, because every pouch has a ‘licence plate’, making the whole process fully transparent.”

Stretch Hood Security Technology

Another eye-catching security innovation from the company this year is the Beumer stretch hood, which helps to secure pallets. Gregor Baumeister illustrates: “Consider a pallet delivery to shops and stores containing small, high-value goods: a good example might be razor blades. This is what the stretch hood is for – an enclosed hood made of film which can be pulled down and over the goods snugly. Anyone looking to pilfer goods from the pallet would need to tamper with the film to extract anything and this would be very evident in the breakage of the film. While it’s possible to reach inside an unprotected rack pallet to take out a product, it can’t be done with a stretch hood attached. A rack pallet you can always reach in, but with a stretch hood you cannot. In addition, it also provides protection from the elements.”

Learning from Data

Beumer’s advanced data analytics capabilities enable customers to further exploit the full capability of automation technology.

“Data analytics enables the recognition of patterns, thus facilitating predictive maintenance,” he explains. “But it also performs valuable service in steering operational processes, so that we can proactively advise customers of upcoming situations. In modern business, it’s important to see as far and as early as possible. Our customer diagnostic centres help monitor and manage facilities, offering operational advice if the customer wishes us to do so.”

Beumer’s tools enable the flexibility so essential to today’s logistics needs. “You don’t know what’s coming round the corner,” Baumeister cautions. “You need to avoid roadblocks if you want to stay in business.”

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Beumer supplies individual packaging solutions