Logistics Digitalisation
BMW iFACTORY: 36 Million Parts Each Day, One Digital System
BMW Group is going through a fundamental transformation. Each of its thirty global manufacturing plants is gradually becoming an iFACTORY – a modern operation that’s effective, sustainable and digital. This is not a pilot project, but a shift in its global manufacturing system towards comprehensive and innovative thinking. Forever. At Trends in Automotive Logistics (TAL) 2025, Tobias Mayr, BMW Group’s General Manager IT Inbound Logistics, provided a behind-the-scenes look at this transformation.
From Pilot Project to Operations: How Škoda Auto Is Implementing AI in Logistics
What’s the best way to deal with 3,500 freight vehicles a day, 93 systems in logistics and rapid data growth? Škoda Auto is betting on a combination of digitalisation, standardisation and the targeted use of artificial intelligence. At Trends in Automotive Logistics 2025, the company’s logistics systems coordinator Mojmír Barák explained how it’s moving AI out of laboratory conditions into real operations and how to build people’s trust in new technologies.
Panel Discussion on the Future of Logistics: AI, Work with Data and a Clash of Generations
The era of merely collecting data is behind us. Now we have to decide: what’s the right way to use that data – and protect it? The “Digital. Future-Proof?” panel discussion at the Trends in Automotive Logistics 2025 conference this May touched on a number of fundamental questions related to the digitalisation of logistics. The panel’s experts shared their views and experience regarding artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and changing job roles, as well as how to bridge the generation gap in the workplace.
Interview with Prof. Dr. Nils Finger: What does the new normal mean in the logistics?
The interview with Prof. Dr. Nils Finger, a renowned supply chain expert and regional spokesperson for the German Logistics Association (BVL), sheds light on the current challenges and changes in the logistics industry. Speaking at the Trends in Automotive Logistics (TAL) 2024 conference organised by Aimtec, Nils Finger emphasises that the world has changed significantly since the pandemic and that we are now living in the ‘new normal’.
“People and data are worth their weight in gold.” The best quotes from the Trends in Automotive Logistics Conference 2024
People, data and sustainability: these are the topics that resounded at the Trends in Automotive Logistics Conference 2024, subtitled Driving the Digital Fast Lane. How can you drive safely in digitalisation’s fast lane while still transforming quickly enough? Nearly 400 experts in logistics, manufacturing and IT from the European automotive sector came to the conference to explore this question. Ten inspiring speakers rotated on the stage throughout the day. What were the most interesting quotes at this conference? Read our picks below.
Efficient in the Dark: The Five Phases on the Way to a Dark Warehouse
Fully automated warehouses – dark warehouses – aren’t just science fiction anymore. They’re coming to the forefront in the real world. They operate without human intervention and in the dark, because their robots and machines can work without light, and their processes run based on system commands. What are the ideal steps and paths on the way to a dark warehouse? Can digital twins help with deploying these warehouses?
The Trends in Automotive Logistics Conference 2024: In the fast lane of the digitalisation highway
Digital transformation is like a road that enterprises drive down to adapt to changing conditions and gain a competitive advantage. What do the “drivers” – CEOs, logisticians and IT experts – need so they can enter the fast lane of the digitalisation highway? What abilities, platforms and technologies are necessary to ensure they and their teams are confidently pointed towards their goals? We spoke with Roman Žák, co- founder of the conference organiser Aimtec, on the topics for the next TAL conference, which will take place in Pilsen on 18 June.
Efficient in the Dark: The Dark Warehouse as the Future of Warehouse Logistics
Warehouse logistics is always a challenge for manufacturers. The movements of a large quantity of products offer significant optimisation potential, but they also mean many potential points of failure. Fully automated warehouses, also known as ’dark warehouses’, are often seen as the ideal solution to every problem. What makes them better than regular warehouses, and what makes them different?
Scherdel - Flexibility as a key goal of automation
Inhouse logistics starts to be a difficult issue from companies of medium size. One such company is SCHERDEL, whose Czech division has embarked on a project to automate and digitalize logistics, specifically by implementing a fully automated warehouse full of self-driving robots. During the work, the entire concept changed several times, because one of the key conditions of the whole solution was flexibility, which is not easy to provide through automation. The experience of building an automated warehouse was submitted by the company's managers in a presentation at the TAL 2023 conference.
Market pressure is the greatest catalyst for change
Zebra Technologies, a global leader and innovator in automatic identification, conducted a Warehousing Vision Study among thousands of industry decision makers around the world, which yielded interesting industry perspectives and preferences. Marian Šramko, Vice President Sales, Eastern Europe & Middle East at Zebra Technologies, spoke about some of them.
An interview with LASSELSBERGER's Head of Logistics on a successful introduction of changes
RAKO is a brand with over 140 years of tradition. It’s also a member of the LASSELSBERGER group – one of the world’s largest producers of ceramic tiles. I visited the RAKO distribution centre in Chlumčany and spoke with Pavel Vokáč, Head of Logistics at the Czech branch, about how these products’ logistics has some surprising specifics.
TAL 2023: The future belongs to the flexible and resilient, says Zebra CTO Tom Bianculli
By the end of this decade, a number of technological phenomena, such as artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, will influence many already mature markets. Of the greatest importance, however, will be the ability to deliver the right product in the right quantity to the right place at the right time, said Tom Bianculli, Chief Technology Officer at Zebra Technologies, in his presentation at the TAL 2023 conference.
Brano - the path to 21st century logistics
From complete locking mechanisms, other mechanical parts, door handles to fuel tank caps for Skoda Auto and other car companies. This is the business of Brano, which has recently committed to a change in logistics and invested in digitizing its warehouse to minimize the role of humans. At the TAL 2023 conference, Denis Kittrich, a technologist from Brano, together with Jiří Žižka, project manager at Aimtec, explained how the project was carried out.
TAL 2023: What Safran's digital transformation looks like
The purpose of any change in company operation should be to improve, whether in terms of efficiency, cost or workflow. Ideally this is an upgrade that brings positive benefits in all areas. This may not be easy for large companies operating in different industries. At technology company Safran, they have done just that, relying on four key pillars of digital transformation, as explained by executives Frédéric Vétil and Bindioa Ouali at the TAL 2023 conference.
Behind the scenes: how new resilient logistics is being built at Skoda Auto
The demands on manufacturing logistics change over time, and this change has accelerated at an unprecedented rate in recent years with the accompanying phenomena of the Covid-19 pandemic. David Strnad, Head of Logistics at Škoda Auto, presented how these challenges are being dealt with and how they are preparing for the next ones in the largest domestic automotive company at the Trends in Automotive Logistics 2023 conference.
