Freight forwarders and logistics service providers are facing considerable challenges: EU requirements to reduce emissions are putting the industry under pressure – transport is one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases in Germany. However, these stricter targets also offer opportunities to save resources, make processes more efficient and reduce costs.

The solution

This is where the AddRoute (Ad hoc Dynamic Route) project comes in: Haulage companies aim to plan their routes as efficiently and effectively as possible, but often lack the necessary information to do so. On the basis of photos from the truck loading space, freight forwarders receive a basis for decision-making to optimize the use of truck space and to estimate the relocation costs. This allows an ad hoc decision to be made as to whether an additional order would be economical and still fit on the loading area of a truck. Thanks to more efficient capacity utilization in long-distance transport, costs can be saved and additional orders can be implemented. At the same time, emissions are reduced, which leads to a better overall ecological balance.

Photos: Fraunhofer IML/Vinzenz Neugebauer

Contact person:

Jonas Stenzel
Fraunhofer IML
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Georg Wichmann
Fraunhofer IML
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National and European legislation is increasingly tightening the requirements for the sustainability of packaging and reporting on it, making it an economic factor for companies. Due to the diversity of packaging systems, assessing their environmental impact is a complex challenge and requires in-depth expertise and knowledge of relevant methods, norms and standards.

The solution

The SustainPack expert tool is used to determine customer-specific ecological key figures for packaging systems and identify options for a sustainable packaging strategy. The modular structure of the tool ensures transparency and comparability and simplifies monitoring. SustainPack makes it easy to identify weak points and compare different packaging systems, making it easier for companies to comply with legal requirements and quickly identify the most economical alternatives.

Photos: Fraunhofer IML/Vinzenz Neugebauer

Contact person:

Maurice Grammel
Fraunhofer IML
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Charlotte Joachimsthaler
Fraunhofer IML
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Current legislation requires a large number of companies to disclose their sustainability-related data or report to suppliers and partners through supply chain commitments. Many existing sustainability reports are difficult to compare due to inconsistent data and formats.

The solution

Sustainalyze is an intelligent document analysis software that reads sustainability reports, records them semantically and makes information
comparable. It provides a completeness analysis and plausibility check. To identify relevant sustainability aspects from different perspectives, companies carry out a materiality analysis. Through effective benchmarking in these key aspects, companies can analyze their performance in comparison to industry standards and make targeted improvements. In addition, the sustainability performance of companies along their own supply chain can be reviewed. Only publicly available data is used for the comparison, which makes the basis for the assessment transparent.

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Pia Schreynemackers
Fraunhofer IML
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Olaf Vieweg
Fraunhofer IML
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The aim of the ResiOpt project is to develop a service for analyzing companies’ supply chains and using standardized data analysis to generate a catalog of measures that can be used to increase resilience within the supply network.

Photos: Fraunhofer IML/Vinzenz Neugebauer

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Johanna Kippenberger
Fraunhofer IML
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Nikolas Moroff
Fraunhofer IML
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Online retail is subject to constant change: current trends and seasonal fluctuations influence the product and order structure in mail order. With the increasing variety of products and the varying order structure, the range of shipping cartons is also growing over time. Although the available packaging is becoming increasingly diverse, the degree of volume utilization is often decreasing. This is mainly because packaging is not adapted to the changed requirements, such as the dimensions and weight of the products.

The solution

The CASTN (Carton Set Optimization) optimization software offers a solution by determining a customer-specific trade-off between the number of cartons and the achieved volume utilization rate. The calculation is based on the item and order structure, the available packaging range, and use case-specific conditions. For customers, this results in an optimized shipping carton set including relevant key figures and visualizations.

Photos: Fraunhofer IML/Vinzenz Neugebauer

Contact person:

Lukas Lehmann
Fraunhofer IML
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Hermann Foot
Fraunhofer IML
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