The European Materials Handling Federation has announced the shortlist for a competition designed to overcome logistics sector challenges and is encouraging the industry to vote for its favorite.
The Smart Logistics Challenge – how to deliver tomorrow initiative received submissions from 571 students in 26 different European countries and a jury of representatives from logistics businesses whittled them down to six finalists.
Coming from Spain, Portugal, France, Denmark and the Netherlands, the finalists now have the opportunity to refine their concepts during the course of paid traineeships with partner companies.
An official award ceremony will take place on September 14 at the FEM Congress in Antwerp, Belgium, to which the finalists will be invited as VIP guests and, up until September 10, members of the public can choose their choice of concept to be presented with the TrendSpotter Award.
Youth matters
Christophe Lautray, FEM president and member of the executive board of logistic specialist Linde Material Handling, said, “The logistics sector needs young, creative minds who recognize the potential of digitization, automation and networking and develop ideas for innovative solutions and business models.
“Therefore, we are delighted with the large number of participants. This shows that our efforts are bearing fruit and that students from all over Europe see the material handling sector as an attractive field of work with exciting topics and personal opportunities.”
Entries could be submitted for three different topics. In the category ‘Logistics in a Sharing Economy’, for example, a student team convinced the jury with their idea of accelerating the procurement of spare parts for ships via a decentralized network of 3D printers. In the category ‘Cobots in Logistics 4.0’, one of the award-winning entries selected by the jury was the concept of a robot that can autonomously remove palletized goods from wrapped film.
Furthermore, the proposal to optimize transport capacities over long distances by means of a network of autonomous electric trucks, which can also independently plan the loading and unloading processes, was identified as a possible ‘Enabler of e-commerce’.
To view the six finalists and vote for your favorite, click here.
