Open-source Foundation Aims to Digitize Breakbulk Logistics
A consortium of transport and logistics firms in Germany have launched a new non-profit foundation, designed to develop a range of digital tools to reshape logistics and enhance breakbulk supply chains.
Founded by cargo specialists Rhenus, duisport, Dachser, and DB Schenker, the new Open Logistics Foundation or OLF, aims to connect expertise from across industry to create a unique open-source community.
Anita Würmser, spokesperson for the OLF, told Breakbulk that the organisation will build on a range of existing open-source tools that target breakbulk or outsized project cargo to build a strong community, with a “central milestone” being the creation of a global repository “in the coming year.”
Standardization
Beside development of new software tools, the foundation aims to accelerate the standardization of logistics processes in the breakbulk sector through de facto standards, driven by technology rather than policy.
Markus Bangen, chairman of Duisburger Hafen AG (duisport) and member of the OLF advisory board, said that one of the primary goals of the body is “the creation of urgently needed standards to make cross-location collaboration technologically easier.” He expects the bundling of resources and topics to create a “unique opportunity to set de facto standards instead of creating further monoliths.”
Bringing together all forms of logistics-related companies and their IT developers, the foundation is well-placed to provide unique benefits for breakbulk firms as many aspects of project cargo handling currently remain bespoke and analog in contrast to other forms of logistics which can be more conducive to replication.
Würmser of the OLF explains that track and trace as well as digitization of freight documents will be early areas of development that are hoped to impact breakbulk operations, and that the “VDA 5050 interface, which will be available in the repository from 2022, is also an interesting field of application for cross-manufacturer communication of heavy goods AGVs”
Platform Economy
Based in Dortmund, Germany, the OLF is backed by Open Logistics e.V., a funding association established in Berlin, which has already received support from a range of major companies, keen to finance open-source development, including: AEB, BLG Logistics Group, GS1 Germany, Lobster Logistics Cloud and the Bochum-based Setlog Holding, as well as associations such as the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung.
“We want to drive the digitalization of logistics forward together,” the partners said in a joint statement. “That is why open source is an important success factor for the entire logistics industry and, at the same time, a driver for harmonized processes in digital supply chains. We consider the Open Logistics Foundation to be the first step towards a platform economy based on European legal standards and values.”
At the core of this new platform economy, the partners envisage a software hub, known as the Open Logistics Repository. This service will act as a technical platform where software and hardware interfaces can be hosted, and reference implementations and components can be made available to developers.
All tools hosted on the repository will be open source under a free license, meaning they can be downloaded, altered and used commercially with no charge. Through this centralized approach, it is hoped that the breakbulk sector can accelerate the rate of development by pooling resources, as well as reducing costs and preventing common barriers that can occur through the use of proprietary software.
“The open-source concept guarantees an open standard for digitalizing logistics processes while offering a high degree of flexibility for individual adaptations. By founding the Open Logistics Foundation, we have laid the basis for the era of open source in logistics,” said Stephan Peters, board member of Rhenus, and OLF vice chairman. “Digitalization is not an end in itself. It overcomes interfaces and pays off higher-level goals such as transparency, efficiency, and sustainability. Above all, however, it must also be economically feasible and successful on the market. One-hundred percent digital is not a dream, but our common future in more and more use cases.”
Competitive Factor
Over the next year, the partners will develop the infrastructure necessary to host the repository while also introducing some primary elements such as the first open-source digital consignment note (eCMR) the digital load carrier exchange implementation.
“Intelligent logistics is based on high-performance IT systems,” said Stefan Hohm, chief development officer at Dachser. “It hardly makes sense to program every line of code in a standard application yourself. This is neither economical nor does it provide a competitive advantage. On the contrary, quite often, it even prevents the pragmatic networking of partners and customers. Therefore, it is advantageous for all supply chain parties, if in the future, that selected software components are available to everyone free of charge as open-source elements and continuously updated via a neutral authority. Open source thus becomes another important competitive factor, and that is why we have supported the idea of the Open Logistics Foundation since the very beginning.”
Initiated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics, or IML, the foundation has been backed by €25 million in funding from the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure and will involve more than 150 researchers over the next two years.
A key part of the IML’s Silicon Economy research project, the development of the repository is expected to be essentially complete by 2023, with work ongoing beyond that to maintain and update the hub.
“Digitisation is the goal, and open source is the key to taking all companies along this journey, regardless of size and sector,” Michael ten Hompel, managing director of the IML explained, “The logistics sector must become more software-driven to play a role in the forthcoming platform economy and to self-determine its future based on European legal standards and values ... Now it’s a matter of what the logistics sector turns it into.”
