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The world as a whole is grappling with the conditions for producing climate-friendly energy to support a competitive green industry. The Ruhr region is taking a pioneering role in this regard. The transition from the fossil-fueled industrial era to the hydrogen era is in full swing

Dominik Bons (TU Dortmund), Sabine Jakob, and Maximilian Austerjost (Fraunhofer IML) also sensed this spirit of change at this year's Hy.Summit.Rhein.Ruhr 2023: For a successful hydrogen economy, we need to rethink our value chains. Blockchain technology, in particular, will play to its strengths in bringing transparency to decentralized process and operational technology from solar panels to industrial facilities.

The 41. Zukunftskongress Logistik took place from September 12 to 13, 2023. In the panel discussion moderated by Natalia Broza-Abut, participants including Michael Henke from Fraunhofer IML, Alexander Pawellek from Commerzbank AG, and Urs M. Krämer from T-Systems International GmbH explored how the interplay of technologies such as AI, Blockchain, Smart Contracts, and others can be effectively utilized in the value chain to increase efficiency and resilience. Using practical examples, the discussion highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration between research, finance, IT infrastructure, and legal considerations.

From May 9, 2023, to May 12, 2023, the transport logistic trade fair will once again take place in Munich. Transport logistic is the worldwide leading trade fair for logistics, mobility, IT, and supply chain management. Two of our demonstrators will also be part of the booth at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML.

Blockchain-Based Hazardous Goods Handling

The demonstrator for blockchain-based hazardous goods handling supports interaction between logistical process participants (e.g., through a blockchain-based transportation document), provides assistance functions, ensures traceability, and maintains persistent documentation of the process progress. It also enables the processing of sensitive data and tamper-resistant storage of all process-specific information.

Smart Waste Management

The »Smart Waste Management« use case demonstrates how order processing, using Internet of Things (IoT) and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT), can be automated and made more sustainable, focusing on document destruction as an example. By digitizing the order processing workflow—from reporting a critical fill level of the secure container to payment for disposal services—significant efficiency gains can be achieved for companies. The project involves the Fraunhofer IML, Rhenus Data Office GmbH, and Commerzbank AG.

The Internet of Things is becoming more and more autonomous. Machines generate orders independently, book suitable production capacities, place orders and sign contracts with each other. However, while there is a clear legal framework in the rest of the business world, the legal situation for signing contracts between machines is currently less clear. Which law applies? What do legally secure solutions look like? Who is liable if damage occurs as a result of machine decisions? These and other questions are to be answered by the "Industry 4.0 Recht-Testbed".

In this context, the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi) is supporting the "Industry 4.0 Recht-Testbed", an application-oriented research project that serves as a model. In addition to the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML, the project is supported by the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering ISST, also from Dortmund, the Saarland University with the Institute for Legal Informatics, and the Ruhr University Bochum with the Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security.

In the testbed, engineers simulate negotiations and the conclusion of contracts for machines with a clear focus on the analysis of legal problems. Lawyers evaluate the processes on the basis of the current legal situation and point out legal uncertainties and give recommendations for the development of new legal standards. However, the project will also result in very concrete approaches and tools, model clauses and contracts. Small and medium-sized enterprises in particular will thus have a basis on which they can assess legal risks resulting from communication between machines in the areas of civil law and civil procedure law as well as IT and data protection law - as is the case today with contracts and negotiations between people.

The project, which is also supported by BMWi, started on 01.06.2019 and runs until 31.05.2023. The total funding amount is 5.5 million euros. In addition to BMWi, the project partners can also count on the support of the Industry 4.0 platform, a joint project of the BITKOM, VDMA and ZVEI trade associations and the International Data Space Association sponsored by the German government.

Commerzbank is the first bank to establish an Enterprise Lab at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML. The partners are thus striving for close cross-sector cooperation on logistics, supply chain management, supply chain finance and digital innovations.

Commerzbank is the first financial institution to establish an Enterprise Lab at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML in Dortmund, thereby expanding the cooperation that has existed since July 2017. With the "Trade Finance Innovations Lab", Commerzbank as one of the leading European foreign trade banks is now also part of the Enterprise Lab Center at Fraunhofer IML and is the first bank to cover the area of financial services with a focus on trade finance business, i.e. the processing and financing of international trade transactions. In future, application-oriented Fraunhofer IML scientists from the fields of logistics, supply chain management and blockchain technology will work closely with trade finance specialists from Commerzbank and its research and development unit "Main-Incubator".

In the "Trade Finance Innovations Lab", new payment and financing solutions for the trade finance business are to be developed and brought to market on the basis of innovative technologies such as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), Smart Contracts and the Internet of Things (IoT). At the same time, standards and framework conditions for the digitization of international supply chain management and the corresponding financing instruments are to be actively shaped.

The "Fraunhofer Enterprise Labs" have established themselves as a successful model since 2013: Commerzbank is a member of the European Pallet Association e.V. (EPAL), Deutsche Telekom, Dachser SE, Rhenus SE & Co. KG, Boehringer-Ingelheim, the BMW Group, DB Schenker AG, Audi AG, the Würth Group and Sick AG are the eleventh companies to have opted for this innovative form of joint research between industry and science.

Blockchain technology and Smart Contracts based on it hold considerable potential for optimizing business processes. The Purchasing & Finance department in Supply Chain Management researches and analyses, among other things, current and future applications of these technologies. As part of the series "Future Challenges in Logistics and Supply Chain Management" of the Fraunhofer IML, the white paper "Blockchain and Smart Contracts: Efficient and Secure Value Networks".

In order to make the various optimization possibilities accessible, it first explains the basics that are important for understanding this complex and still quite new technology. Furthermore, different fields of application of blockchain and smart contracts, also outside the financial sector, are considered. The potential of a blockchain application for the optimization of internal and external company processes is demonstrated, especially with regard to the fact that value creation networks are becoming increasingly interlinked. 

Fraunhofer’s strategic position paper Blockchain and Smart Contracts, which was published by several Fraunhofer institutes collaboratively in late 2017, is now also available in English. Herein, scientific and application-oriented aspects of the Blockchain technology are investigated. In particular, it deals with possible applications and technical research questions.

Pleased visitors after the kick-off event at the beginning of September at the IML. Together with the medium-sized company PIEL, our experts for plant and service management and blockchain applications are developing a blockchain-based solution for cross-company electronic data exchange along the entire supply chain of an SME for the first time.

The cooperation project, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and scheduled to last twelve months, is the continuation of a transfer project successfully completed in May 2018 by the "Digital in NRW" competence center, in which PIEL and Infineon Technologies Bipolar, together with Fraunhofer IML, developed and evaluated new digital business models. Requirements were jointly defined, fields of action identified, technologies selected and a concrete business case put into practice.

Based on the blockchain technology, an intelligent supply concept for the automatic replenishment control of spare parts is to be developed in the future, reducing the administrative work of maintenance and fully automating transactions. The follow-up project that has now begun will develop a functional pilot within the next few months, which can be tested in the real company environment next year and then implemented.

This year, the 36th Dortmunder Gespräche - the Future Congress Logistics 2018 - will take place from 11 to 12 September. In addition to many other trend-setting research projects and innovations, Fraunhofer IML will also present a specially developed demonstrator for the project "Smart Objects and Smart Finance Approaches (SOFiA)". Visit us and experience the innovations logistics is using to meet the various challenges of the future. We look forward to your participation!

Find out more here: 

http://www.zukunftskongress-logistik.de/

The contribution "Smart Contracts and Smart Payment in Farming 4.0" was awarded the "Best Paper Award" at a conference of the BMBF-funded project "Digivation" from 03/20 - 03/21 2018 in Aachen. The planned publication contains company-specific applications of various digital innovations. Marco Motta from Fraunhofer IML accepted the award on behalf of the team of authors led by Dominik Sparer and Philipp Sprenger.

With a trip to China, our Procurement 4.0 theme has gained further momentum: Axel T. Schulte and Natalia Broza-Abut were on the road with the new customer Zber in Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai at the end of September 2017. The Chinese company is a provider of solutions for global procurement and supply chain management. Chief consultant Yi Zhu first became aware of our preliminary study "Procurement 4.0 - Digitisation in Procurement". In the spring of 2017, Yi Zhu visited the IML together with his team. Zber then placed several orders with the IML.

At the 16th International Sourcing Fair Shanghai, Axel and Natalia presented the topic Industry 4.0 and digitization of procurement, as well as our Fraunhofer Procurement 4.0 Check. The trade fair organisers also appointed Axel to the International Sourcing Expert Panel. Also on the agenda was a visit to the company eventown.com, which carried out the Fraunhofer Procurement 4.0 check for the first time in Asia. Eventown is China's first and largest booking platform for the conference industry. The company was voted as one of the most successful Chinese start-ups by the business magazine Forbes in 2015. The Chinese business partners were also very interested in the potential of blockchain technology in the context of SCM and procurement.

High expectations are being placed in Procurement 4.0 today - and the Fraunhofer IML makes it possible for companies to set standards here. With the "Procurement 4.0 Check" - a development from the Procurement and Finance Department in Supply Chain Management - companies have the opportunity to identify individual needs for action and potential for Industry 4.0 in Procurement.

Commerzbank press release July 4th 2017

Commerzbank and the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML in Dortmund have agreed on a cooperation. At the heart of this cooperation, scenarios for the supply chains of the future are to be developed. The institute supports the bank in orchestrating these processes and at the same time provides the latest findings on supply chain management and the possible use of blockchain technologies in this area. The blockchain, or distributed ledger technology, is a decentralized data structure and, for example, the basis for intelligent electronic contracts, so-called "Smart Contracts", which focus on the automated processing of business transactions.

Many digitisation approaches of banks, companies and scientific institutions are currently focussing on international trade transactions and the related commodity and financial flows. Increasing global competition, changing customer expectations and shorter product lifecycles make the associated international supply chains increasingly important for operational decision makers. With further digitization along supply chains, many process improvements and opportunities will arise from optimized management and faster availability of data. “Talking” containers, for example, will then become commonplace in global foreign trade.

Greater networking of functions can also create completely new areas of application across companies. This applies in particular to modern applications in the field of Internet of things, i.e. for networked objects that connect themselves independently via the internet and carry out tasks, as well as for Smart Contracts. This can result in new trading systems and trade financing concepts, faster transaction procedures and ultimately new solutions in working capital management. These are the focus of the new cooperation.

“Our core competencies, 'Moving money safely', 'Financing trade' and 'Assuming risks' will also be highly relevant for our customers in the age of digitalisation. The integration of the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML ensures the best possible insight into the currently very diverse digitization approaches along the logistics and material flow processes of our customers", said Dr. Bernd Laber, Member of the Board of Managing Directors responsible for Trade Finance & Cash Management for corporate customers at Commerzbank. “In numerous projects and consortia, we are also working with other international banks on the digitization of products and services, as well as on applications for blockchain technologies. The clear focus on the future supply chains of our customers, which we will develop together with the Fraunhofer IML, is very important to us as a corporate customer bank", continued Dr. Laber.

“Digitalization approaches in supply chain management, such as the development of smart containers that are able to route themselves, commission logistics service providers and pay for them independently, will enable completely new business models for banks in the areas of financing, risk management and transactions", explained Prof. Dr. Michael Henke, head of the Fraunhofer IML institute. “I am convinced that technologies such as block chains and smart contracts are key enablers for linking physical and financial supply chains. With Commerzbank as an innovative cooperation partner, we will develop new, safe and fast solutions for the supply chain of the future.”

You want to determine where your procurement department is situated in terms of Industry 4.0 and which fields of activity are on their way to procurement 4.0?
The Fraunhofer Procurement 4.0 Check serves as a starting point for the implementation of Industry 4.0 within your procurement department and supports you in finding answers to your questions.

Evaluating both qualitative and quantitative success factors of your procurement department, the essential fields of activity regarding Industry 4.0 are identified by means of a gap analysis.
Furthermore, you will receive an evaluation of the most relevant KPIs as well as a determination of your progress level on the way to procurement 4.0.
Therefore, the Fraunhofer Procurement 4.0 Check serves as a foundation for the development of an individual roadmap to the implementation of Industry 4.0 in your procurement department.