Real Potential for Cost-Reduction and Innovation

It’s hard to think of another business area that offers companies such huge scope for rationalization and savings as the materials handling and logistics sector.

Like the materials it transports, this technology is constantly evolving with the development of more effective, efficient solutions. However, the potential savings offered by new in-plant materials handling and logistics systems often go unnoticed.

Logistics is generally regarded as merely moving goods from Point A to Point B. But the industry’s real potential for cost-reduction and innovation lies elsewhere: in the growing field of “intralogistics.”

Definition

• Intralogistics providers are companies that supply technical systems and services to help other companies manage their in-house materials handling requirements. Intralogistics clients include industrial enterprises, wholesalers, retailers and government institutions.
• Intralogistics refers to managing material flows along the entire supply chain (supply chain management).
• Intralogistics describes the internal flow of materials between different logistics nodes in a company – from materials handling in the production process to distribution centers right on up to airports and seaports – as well as to the corresponding flow of information.
• Intralogistics is a cutting-edge term that describes a fast-growing sector consisting of lifting equipment and crane manufacturers, forklift truck and warehouse technology producers, software developers and even complete system providers. The intralogistics sector in Germany alone numbers several thousand companies.

Intralogistics can also be defined by the following equation:

Intralogistics = [ ∑ (logistics nodes)] + [ ∑ (internal information flows)] – [ ∑ (external transport logistics)]

Source: CeMAT

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