We foster long-standing business relationships with many of our customers and collaborate with them in a spirit of trust on wide-ranging projects. We play to our strengths particularly well when it comes to realizing custom solutions or designing and subsequently operating entire logistics centers. Above and beyond this, we also provide extremely reliable and efficient logistics services 365 days a year. Irrespective of the nature and scope of the contract, it is crucial for us to understand our customers’ business and carefully consider their needs in our planning and consulting, while also anticipating any changes within their industry or in the market. One of the ways in which we do this is through supporting the transition to electromobility – a key challenge for many of our customers – by continuously expanding our services and our own expertise in the field. Long-term contracts allow us to act with such foresight and also create scope and the necessary security to invest in sustainable solutions.
With its emphasis on sustainability, our new C3 Bremen logistics center sets an important benchmark in this respect. Since 2023, we have consolidated the production supply to global assembly plants of a leading automotive manufacturer here. In addition to meeting the customer’s needs, the concept places a focus on modern workplaces. With the largest continuous roof-mounted PV system in Germany to date and net carbon-neutral operation, we are setting a new environmental standard for logistics real estate.
Quality thanks to effective structures and processes
We contractually assure our customers of the quality of our services and aim to convince them anew every day that we are the right choice of partner. In doing so, we particularly value long-term collaboration, but are also delighted when new companies choose us. In the reporting year, we were able to further expand our partnership with Siemens Energy and assume responsibility for production logistics for hydrogen systems for our customer’s new plant in Berlin. We also took on additional sequencing activities for the Mercedes-Benz plant in Bremen. At three other locations, we leased new space to accompany the growth of existing customers.
Following major restructuring measures in 2022, particularly with the merging of the AUTOMOBILE and CONTRACT Board of Management functions under the management of our COO Matthias Magnor, we continued to adapt to the requirements of the market and our customers in the reporting year. In addition to the systematic implementation of the CONTRACT roadmap drawn up in 2022, a similar roadmap was developed for the AUTOMOBILE Division in the reporting year. As part of the restructuring, the Cargo Logistics company, which includes our breakbulk business and thus services relating to general and heavy cargo, was assigned to the CONTRACT Division as of January 1, 2023.
It goes without saying that the systematic reduction of loss ratios is another important indicator of the quality of our performance, which is why we are continuously looking for possibilities to achieve this. To this end, the central Quality departments are responsible for establishing, refining and overseeing certification of our quality management systems. They also support the integration and implementation of our environmental, occupational health and safety and energy management systems. Most of our German and foreign locations – including all sites in the AUTOMOBILE Division – are certified according to DIN EN ISO 9001, and the automotive locations additionally according to VDA 6.2. Our customers also regularly carry out their own audits at our car terminals. In the CONTRACT Division, our services are strongly oriented toward our customers’ production processes and in some cases even closely dovetailed with theirs. We identify potential for improvement through regular exchanges at operational and management level. Optimizing value-creating activities is an especially important success factor. To help us continuously streamline individual processes, entire systems and consequently our overall performance, we organize our workflows according to lean management principles and rely on the Six Sigma management system. Lean management was firmly integrated into the corporate culture at all CONTRACT locations in 2017. The five lean principles – identifying value, mapping the value stream, creating flow, establishing a pull system and pursuing perfection – are considered a recipe for continuous improvement. Identifying value defines added value from the customer’s perspective. Mapping the value stream focuses processes that generate value, while the flow principle is aimed at eliminating bottlenecks. Orientation toward a pull system only pulls the service that has been ordered by the downstream process. Finally, the pursuit of perfection is a principle that creates sustainable benefits for the entire company through innovative thinking and action. Our production system is agile and constantly evolving. It is not just a set of rules for designing, introducing and maintaining processes, but also embodies a philosophy in that it always aims to reduce waste and increase added value. Continuous maturity level measurements create transparency regarding the degree of lean penetration, allowing recommended actions for site development to be generated. The maturity level results prove that our approach is already having a positive impact at the CONTRACT sites. We remain committed to continued development and therefore still have a lot in the pipeline, because the pursuit of continuous improvement knows no limits. Our employees pay a decisive role in the success of lean management. Their active participation and commitment are of great importance, which is why we encourage them to make suggestions for improvement and actively help to shape their working environment. Managers have the task of supporting them, motivating them and creating the conditions for the successful implementation of the production system.
Shaping the future of logistics
We are continuously developing new solutions designed to make our customers’ logistics processes fit for the future. In the reporting year, the Technology department was fully established in the CONTRACT Division. The department has the goal to increase the level of automation and digitalization at the BLG locations by means of viable technical solutions such as driverless transport vehicles, autonomous driving, robotics or e-mobility. The Digital Services department as part of central IT is responsible for implementing digitalization activities relating to data strategies, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital workflows.
Together with partners from science and industry, we are working on entirely new, highly complex concepts in research and development projects. In the reporting year, we participated in seven cooperation projects with a volume of around EUR 62.85 million. The “Isabella 2.0” project funded by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) was successfully completed. This project aims to integrate the loading and unloading of trucks, railroad cars and ships into an intelligent management approach that had been developed in the earlier “Isabella” project and uses artificial intelligence to continuously optimize the control algorithm. The app-based order management system developed for car shunting activities is now already being implemented at the Hamburg car terminal. The “KITE” project was also concluded in the reporting year. This was concerned with developing a demonstrator in which vehicles, existing transport orders, freight exchange orders and AI-generated forecast orders flow together for the purpose of route optimization. The idea was to help lower emissions by reducing empty runs.
Four projects were continued as planned: “PortSkill 4.0” focused in 2023 on defining future job profiles in the port environment and, building on this, created first training concepts. The “MEXOT” project is an Innovative Port Technologies (IHATEC) research project for holistic ergonomic design of technical workstations and upstream picking activities. For this purpose, passive exoskeletons are being augmented to include measuring sensors and coupled with driverless transport vehicles to enable (semi-)automated materials allocation. The ergonomics data will be used to develop an incentive platform that gives employees direct personal feedback and integrates gamification approaches to increase motivation. In the “Mobility2Grid” project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the goal through to 2027 is to develop efficient and networked systems for a climate-neutral city. In this context, BLG LOGISTICS is developing concepts for the complete electrification of a logistics site. Simulation studies are also being used to validate the concepts in order to ensure that delivery schedules are adhered to and vehicle battery capacities are sufficient. Finally, within the framework of “HyBit,” 18 network partners are addressing the question of how hydrogen hubs can contribute to a sustainable and climate-neutral Europe. We are primarily involved in the “Mobility and Logistics” project cluster, which is concerned with designing analysis and evaluation methods for various possible uses for hydrogen that we will later test under practical conditions.
The RessourcE – Resource Development in Service Work research project was launched in the reporting year. Here, technical solutions and concepts for health-promoting work design and diversity-oriented skills and qualification development in unskilled jobs are being tested and examined with regard to their generalizability. Within the scope of the project, BLG is testing innovative ergonomic solutions in practice. Studies accompanying the tests examine the implications of the introduction of assistance technologies with regard to process-related and human-centered factors. Based on the findings, software tools are also being developed to aid the systematic selection of assistance technologies and sensory-enhanced assistance technologies.