Pharmalogistik: Strategien & Lösungen

Pharmaceutical logistics covers the holistic planning, control, and execution of transport, warehousing, and production processes along the pharmaceutical supply chain, in compliance with strict regulatory requirements. Digitalization and automation are fundamentally transforming existing processes: AI, real-time data, and autonomous systems increase transparency, reduce errors, and enable efficient, flexible production supply from the plant site to the entire supply chain.

The pharmaceutical industry faces profound change. Supply shortages caused by dependencies on Asian markets, rising regulatory requirements, the growing trend toward biopharma and personalized medicine, and geopolitical risks in global supply networks are putting established structures to the test. However, modern pharmaceutical logistics is far more than conventional warehouse and transport control, because it combines production, site planning, and the entire supply chain into a holistic, resilient system with people at the center.

The pharmaceutical supply chain is becoming increasingly complex, because small batches, temperature-sensitive products, and volatile markets require flexible, transparent networks with complete end-to-end visibility and reliable traceability. At the same time, the digitalization and automation of the pharmaceutical industry open up entirely new possibilities: from AI-supported planning and simulation models to autonomous on-site traffic and intelligent real-time tracking systems.

Independent Expertise for Your Pharmaceutical Logistics
Fraunhofer IML guides and supports companies in the pharmaceutical sector in solving their multilayered challenges systematically and in an interdisciplinary manner: well-founded, vendor-neutral, and always forward-looking.
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Fraunhofer IML makes pharmaceutical supply chains resilient, transparent, and future-proof, keeping people at the center. Our services comprise both subject-matter and technical know-how for optimizing and digitalizing pharmaceutical logistics processes:

Operational excellence

• End-to-end process optimization: holistic analysis and optimization of logistics, production, and IT processes along the entire value chain to overcome interfaces and breaks
• Pharma devices for production supply: development and integration of customer-specific devices (e.g., Smart Panel): from the concept stage through piloting and validation

Supply chain management

• Supply chain simulation and risk management: network analysis, scenario-based risk assessment, and simulation-based decision support
• IT system landscape design for the supply chain: as-is analysis, requirements catalog, supplier workshops, and development of future-proof SCM IT roadmaps

Robotics

• Laboratory automation: vendor-neutral selection and introduction of mobile manipulation solutions including IT/OT integration
• Transport processes on the plant site: vendor-independent selection, piloting, and integration of AMR solutions for in-plant transport

Our ambition: not to integrate what is feasible, but to automate what has so far been impossible, through know-how in technologies beyond the state of the art.

Three central developments will shape pharmaceutical logistics.
First, the trend toward personalized and stratified medicine requires flexible, modular production and delivery processes for small-batch, often temperature-sensitive medicines with short development cycles.
Second, autonomous transport robots, AI-supported control systems, and interactive devices such as the Smart Panel will revolutionize the material flow on the plant site.
Third, the entire supply chain is developing into a networked, simulatable system with end-to-end transparency, reliable temperature control, and more sustainable processes. In all of these developments, the ambition is that people remain at the center and are supported by intelligent technologies that ensure efficiency, safety, and security of supply in equal measure.

What this looks like in concrete terms is shown by three fields of action in which Fraunhofer IML specifically supports pharmaceutical companies: supply chain, site, and production.

Supply Chain: The End-to-End Overview of a Complex System

The pharmaceutical supply chain of the future is influenced by global megatrends. Geopolitical instabilities, climate-related supply risks, and the so-called diamond effect, the worldwide dependence on few sources of supply for critical active ingredients, make resilient, transparent supply networks a strategic necessity.

At the same time, the duality of pharmaceutical mass production and the growing trend toward individualized medicine requires an increasingly flexible supply chain. On the one hand, there is a need for efficient, scalable processes for standard products; on the other hand, for individual, demand-accurate supply chains for tailored therapies.

Digitalization and automation are the decisive lever in this context: real-time transparency of inventory and material flows, AI-supported planning and scheduling, as well as the use of technologies such as blockchain and federated data spaces enable complete end-to-end visibility, both internally and externally. A simulation-capable digital twin of the supply chain forms the basis for scenario-based decisions, automated risk detection, and crisis-proof network design. Cost-effectiveness, sustainability, temperature control, and supply chain security remain central requirements here.

Site: Decentralized Control as a Success Factor

Pharmaceutical logistics at the site level is undergoing change. Small transport robots, autonomous on-site traffic, and seamless tracking of production orders along all value-adding stages, including in-process laboratory analyses, are shaping the future of in-plant material flow.

Through the use of artificial intelligence, the resulting data is consolidated, analyzed, and made controllable for people without delay. Autonomous transport robots handle the efficient movement of materials between the production stations, coordinated by AI systems that continuously learn and optimize.

In this context, people retain control at all times: AI supplies the basis for decisions, the employee makes the decision. This principle of decentralized control makes the logistics system at the site level more scalable, more robust, and more responsive. Bottlenecks are identified early, lead times are shortened, and the overall performance of the system is sustainably improved. An indispensable interplay for pharmaceutical logistics that meets the requirements of production today and in the future.

Pharmaceutical Production: People at the Center of Production

Interactive devices and robots have the potential to unlock potential in the pharmaceutical production of the future that has so far remained unused, while always keeping people at the center. Their integration makes it possible to increase efficiency and precision without compromising the safety and well-being of employees.

Intelligent devices, such as the Smart Panel developed in cooperation with Boehringer Ingelheim, enable continuous monitoring of products and containers along the entire production and transport process. Real-time process data is available at any time and anywhere: bottlenecks, quality deviations, and delays are identified early and can be remedied proactively. At the same time, the Smart Panel enables direct interaction between people and objects, because entries are posted immediately in the IT system and changes are communicated in real time.

Robots also take over transport tasks in the increasingly small-scale production supply. Employees are relieved of routine tasks and can concentrate on demanding, value-adding tasks. Close collaboration between people and robots is central to efficient, safe, and future-proof pharmaceutical production.

"Pharmaceutical logistics is at a turning point. Those who continue to work with manual processes and fragmented IT systems today will no longer be able to survive in the market tomorrow. Real-time transparency, including across system boundaries, automated logistics, and a simulation-capable digital twin of the supply chain are no longer a vision: they are the basis of modern pharmaceutical logistics."
Sebastian Wibbeling, head of the Health Care Logistics department at Fraunhofer IML

The digitalization and automation of pharmaceutical logistics benefits from a wide range of innovative technologies, from the production hall to the global supply chain. Fraunhofer IML specifically relies on proven and forward-looking solutions in order to increase transparency, efficiency, and resilience along the entire value chain.

Digital technologies and data infrastructure

• Digital twin: simulation-capable representation of the supply chain for scenario-based planning, risk analysis, and decision support
• AI and machine learning: scheduling, demand forecasts, and bottleneck detection in real time

Automation and robotics

• Autonomous mobile robots (AMR): automation of in-plant transport processes, scalable and AI-coordinated
• Mobile manipulators: taking over repetitive laboratory steps, selected and integrated vendor-neutrally

Interactive devices

• Smart Panel: intelligent process management device for the pharmaceutical industry, developed together with Boehringer Ingelheim, for complete real-time transparency, direct person-object interaction, and automated data capture without media disruption
• IoT and smart devices along the entire supply chain, from production through delivery
  

Efficient Process Management in the Pharmaceutical Industry

The Smart Panel is a technological innovation of Fraunhofer IML and Boehringer Ingelheim for the digitalization and automation of processes in pharmaceutical logistics. It enables paperless information exchange and real-time data processing and thereby increases transparency as well as efficiency along the entire production and supply chain.

ProjeCt Smart Panel

Bridging System Boundaries, Automating Processes

SMAPA Core is an application software jointly developed by Boehringer Ingelheim and Fraunhofer IML that connects existing core systems such as ERP, MES, and EWM with specialized applications (e.g., label printing, inspection lot processing, temperature monitoring, material localization) as well as smart devices in production and logistics.

This unlocks data sets that were previously only used manually for real-time process monitoring and automation, resulting in measurable efficiency gains, higher data integrity, and improved compliance, while decision-making authority remains with humans.

Real-time Monitoring of Temperature-dependent Transports

In the Temp2Net project, modular IoT devices for temperature-controlled logistics were developed that enable real-time monitoring of temperature-dependent transports. With the help of tamper-proof blockchain technology, the cold chain is documented completely and auditability is increased, which ensures cross-functional process optimization and quality assurance in healthcare.

ProjeCt Temp2Net

We optimize your processes holistically end-to-end, from production and logistics through to IT. This reduces costs, avoids process and system breaks, and creates scalable workflows that make your company more efficient, more transparent, and future-proof.

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