Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML
Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML
© Fraunhofer IML

© Fraunhofer IML

Annual Reports

The 2025 annual report highlights how Fraunhofer IML is working to create intelligent, resilient, and sustainable logistics through research and technology transfer in times of global crises, volatile markets, and digital transformation. At leading trade fairs such as LogiMAT and transport logistic, the focus was on digital ecosystems and interoperable solutions, including the fleet management system “Aulis,” the AI platform “Omnistics,” and the first open-source components from “SKALA.” Expanded collaborations, as well as anniversaries such as “25 Years of Warehouse Logistics” and “15 Years of Fraunhofer CML,” underscore the institute’s international network. Awards for the “Digital Test Field Air Cargo” and the expansion of open-source and AI initiatives demonstrate how logistics is becoming a driver of innovation for sustainability, digitalization, and new business models.

Previous Annual Reports

 

© Fraunhofer IML

Annual Report2024

The 2024 Annual Report provides a comprehensive overview of current research projects, new partnerships, and strategic developments in logistics, digitalization, and AI. With the appointment of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alice Kirchheim, a new era begins that combines technological innovation with sustainable transformation. Anyone interested in learning how the future of logistics is being shaped in concrete terms will find exciting insights and points of reference here.

 

Annual Report 2023

The year 2023 held a very special highlight for logistics research and the Fraunhofer IML: Together with our long-standing partner Dachser, we were able to bring the prestigious German Logistics Award of the German Logistics Association (BVL) to Dortmund! 

In 2023, the research focus was on responsible collaboration between humans and AI in the working world of tomorrow. The large-scale research project Silicon Economy also entered its second funding phase in 2023 and is working on open source projects.

 

© Fraunhofer IML

Annual Report 2022

The current trends that we at Fraunhofer IML are particularly concerned with are artificial intelligence (AI) and open source. This also applied to the past year 2022, in which we were able to launch some remarkable innovations together with our partners from science and industry.

For more exciting information, you can download the annual report below or browse through it as an e-paper.

 

© Open Source als Innovationstreiber für Industrie 4.0

Annual Report 2021

With the establishment of the Open Logistics Foundation, Dachser, DB Schenker, duisport and Rhenus, on the initiative of Fraunhofer IML, have laid the foundation for the logistics industry to play a role in the coming platform economy and to shape its own future on the basis of European legal standards and values. Open source is the key to bringing all companies, regardless of size, along on this path.

 

Annual Report 2020

Everything that can be digitized will be digitized in a Silicon Economy. Artificial intelligence methods will not only analyze and automate processes but also conduct negotiations and conclude payment transactions autonomously. This insight leads to the second major project we were able to secure for IML in 2020: the European Blockchain Institute

 

Annual Report 2019

2019 was a milestone on the way to the Silicon Economy – the year when it was realized all the way up to the highest levels of the political and business community that the future of Germany lies essentially in a logistics platform economy.  

 

Annual Report 2018

 “Everything in motion” – this guiding theme applies to the logistics sector today more than ever before: digitalisation and especially artificial intelligence everywhere will change everything for everyone!

 

Annual Report 2017

“Just do it!” – that was the motto in 2017, and not just for the “Future Logistics Congress”. It is also the spirit that motivates us in our daily work at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML – and that helped the logistics sector to be perceived as a pioneer for industry 4.0 and the digital transformation of the industry today.

 

Annual Report 2016

 Around the world today, we are sharing the knowledge that the introduction of autonomous machines or cyberphysical systems will allow us to control the world more efficiently and flexibly. Change will be fundamental and information technologies play a central role: software becomes the steel and iron of all business models. 

 

Annual Report 2015

Everything is going digital! The year 2014 was all about the fourth industrial revolution for us. As one of the parents of the Internet of Things, we are delighted to see that our vision has arrived in industry. With a lot of impetus from the »EffizienzCluster« and the incentive to put the Internet of Things into reality, we took big steps towards the future in 2014 once again.

 

Annual Report 2014

Everything is going digital! The year 2014 was all about the fourth industrial revolution for us. As one of the parents of the Internet of Things, we are delighted to see that our vision has arrived in industry. 

 

Annual Report 2013

For the Fraunhofer IML, the year 2013 was characterized by strategic development and the foray into new fields.

 

Annual Report 2012

»Lots of new things from Dortmund« – 2012 can be appropriately summarised with this slogan. It was clearly characterised by progress and was not only economically very successful for Fraunhofer IML, but we were also able to make a crucial further step in terms of logistics, even in the public and political perception! 

 

Annual Report 2011

The year 2011 – as being right and proper for an anniversary – was an especially eventful and successful one for the Fraunhofer IML. With more than 700 realized projects our institute can feel happy about both a record result at its 30th birthday and again having been considerably grown. 

 

Annual Report 2010

The year 2010 immediately started with a sensation: the win of the EffizienzCluster LogistikRuhr, the greatest research project in logistics of all time. After the official start on July, 1st 2010, already 26 joint projects could begin and take on their future work together with 11 partners in research and 120 in industry.