New logistics community pushes forward development of digital business models

Nuri Morava is Global Innovation Manager at DB Schenker AG

Today, the intelligent linking of data is regarded as the basis for digital added value. In recent years, the International Data Space Association pushed forward a cross-industry concept for the secure and sovereign management of data which is now to be validated in various application domains. Logistics is an important application domain - Nuri Morava from DB Schenker explains the significance of the Data Spaces concept for the industry.

 

Managing data is a significant success factor for logistics companies nowadays. By means of data analyses companies can optimise both their own and their customers‘ supply chain. In the market, advanced and predictive analytics solutions in particular are almost snatched from logistics companies’ hands. Therefore, digitisation will shape new digital business models in logistics. In 2015, only one percent from a 1100 billion Euro market derived from all-digital business models. While market size will increase by approx. 200 billion Euro till 2021, it is expected that up to 20 percent will derive from digital and all-digital business models. Thus data and information will provide more transparency and various business opportunities for logistics companies.

A very complex landscape urges logistics companies to identify new solutions and ways to simplify the interconnectivity between partners. Clusters of multiple industries and partners foster value creation by using interconnectivity as a vehicle. For maximising value relationships, logistics ecosystems are meant to connect potential partners in a most value creating fashion. End-to-end visibility deals as a nucleus for the logistics ecosystem, since it is a key challenge that multiple parties face.

With the initiative, the research project and the user association of the International Data Spaces – until March 2018 Industrial Data Space – the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft created a concept for a secure data space in the last years in which companies jointly manage their data and retain sovereignty over their data at the same time. Logistics industry is a significant application domain. The new logistics community in the International Data Spaces Association helps to shift requirements and potentials on a data space for logistics from the horizontal level to the vertical level.
 

Cross-company use cases planned

The foundation of the community is of large significance for logistics. Multinational corporations like  DB Schenker, Audi, Bosch and thyssenkrupp drive the development. The community is open for logistics companies, companies with logistics functions and manufacturers of material flow systems. In the next months, we systematically work on cross-company use cases in which at least three companies are involved. Appropriate position papers are to be produced on specific applications, benefits and potentials. The community also serves as network and platform for companies to exchange information on current developments in the field of data sovereignty. Guests from the Netherlands like TNO, the Netherlands Organisation for applied scientific research, and the iSHARE project, an initiative of the Neutral Logistics Information Platform (NLIP), which is the leading platform promoting data exchange in the transport and logistics sector and part of the Netherlands’ Logistics Top Sector programme, will guarantee the cross-border knowledge transfer.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nuri Morava is Global Innovation Manager at DB Schenker AG, a leader in the logistics industry. He is responsible for the Lab Management of DB Schenker Enterprise Lab at Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics. DB Schenker chairs the logistics community of the International Data Association.

 

MORE ABOUT THE TOPIC

IDSA renamed: new focus on the plurality of data spaces

For more than two years, the Industrial Data Space Association has been pooling the requirements for Industrial Data Spaces, organising knowledge exchange between the science and business communities and developing guidelines for certification, standardisation and exploitation. The user association has achieved a great deal, setting new priorities and developing strategies – and also the new communities. The development of the communities made the Industrial Data Space Association change its name to International Data Spaces Association. In the end, the development of Industrial Data Space does not focus on a single data space but on the plurality and coexistence of secure and certified data spaces for data exchange. Depending on the different application scenarios, and the target group/sector and requirement profiles, they are all developing individually. Last but not least, the new name should also help to better communicate the concept of data space in the individual industries. Currently, a Medical Data Space, a Logistics Data Space and a Farm & Food DataSpace are being developed – the classic manufacturing industry will be organised as Industrial Data Space in future, under the new umbrella of the International Data Spaces Association.