Logistics IT in Transition

The whitepaper »Logistics IT in Transition« sheds light on the challenge of an increasingly modular system architecture in logistics. It was created within the framework of the Leistungszentrum Logistik und IT in collaboration with various scientific institutions. Under the umbrella of the Leistungszentrum Logistik und IT, research institutions collaborate that already—each on its own—shape and drive logistics research forward today. Logistics IT is undergoing a transition. Whereas large, monolithic software systems previously controlled end-to-end processes in the warehouse, enterprise, and supply chain, in recent years these have been increasingly supplemented and replaced by a multitude of modular software packages. Key elements on the shop floor include cyber-physical systems (CPS), which operate autonomously, make decentralized decisions, and thereby strive for the current optimum at any given time. The whitepaper »Logistics IT in Transition« examines the requirements that an autonomously operating manufacturing environment imposes on higher-level and subordinate IT systems, and identifies fields of action for the integration of a cyber-physical production system (CPPS) into the enterprise architecture.