Torben Radtke joined Häger & Schmidt in 2018 as part of his master's thesis and works in the area of process and project management. There, he is primarily engaged in digitization projects and the search for innovative solutions and is therefore also in intensive exchange with the innovation platform startport GmbH — a subsidiary of Duisburger Hafen AG.
Duisburg, 11.06.2024 - Torben Radtke joined Häger & Schmidt in 2018 as part of his master's thesis and works in the area of process and project management. There, he is primarily engaged in digitization projects and the search for innovative solutions and is therefore also in intensive exchange with the innovation platform startport GmbH — a subsidiary of Duisburger Hafen AG.
Can you give us an insight into your current logistics project? What are the goals behind this and what about innovative implementations there?
“We are currently working on several projects. One project I would like to highlight is an AI project and building a sales assistant. This means that we automatically read out the emails with customer inquiries about possible transports, crystallize the data and then automatically submit an offer for our transport to the customer afterwards. In another project, we are currently trying to set up a supported scheduling process. In other words, with the flood of data that currently exists, our dispatchers, who schedule our trains and ships, should receive assistance so that all incoming data flows together. The restrictions are considered and a recommended arrangement for our ships and trains is thus issued. ”
What were the specific challenges of the latest logistics project and its implementation?
“Of course, it is always a challenge that you have to involve all employees, i.e. to make these people really involved in this project. There is so much operational knowledge in these people that we definitely need in order to be able to successfully implement this project. Of course, it is also very important that you get input and support from external sources so that you can really successfully design such a project. In the end, the expertise is there, as well as knowledge about AI technologies and these two things must then be brought together in a project. ”
And how exactly did you get the employees involved in the process?
“You have to talk to the employees right from the start and bring them into the project team. You should be on board right from the start when you first formulate the requirement, so that we really know afterwards what we actually want to develop, what problems are involved, so that the specialist side can then also develop in the right direction and thus satisfy the needs of the employees in the end. ”
Have you recently implemented new processes or technologies that optimize the efficiency of your logistics processes?
1. What we have done successively in recent years was the introduction of RPA processes. RPA stands for Robotic Process Automation. Here, we have simple processes carried out by a robot, in which the work steps that must be carried out in the system are always the same. This virtually takes over the work steps that an employee otherwise does and thus relieves the workload.
2. What else we've done is we've tried to centralize platforms. I'll take this as an example of our platform, which we use for shipping arrivals. Our dispatchers must always know when seagoing vessels will arrive at seaports. There, it was quite laborious to check on all possible platforms of terminal operators when the shipping arrivals are and when should things continue. That is why we have created a central platform internally in which our dispatchers can check when the shipping vessels will arrive and then improve their planning there.
3. We use Lobster_data as a tool for data integration. That is our data octopus, as we always say. Here, we bring together logistics solutions via various API interfaces, connect them to customers and have the opportunity to collect, process and distribute data into our systems. By now, we have already implemented around 500 interfaces with it.
Back to the topic of robotics. Does he also happen to have a name — just like some vacuum cleaning robots do today?
The robotic processes directly at our site have no name. What has a name is our front-end towards chat GPT. It runs under the name HSL Hugo.
How do you see the role of artificial intelligence in the logistics sector in the future?
I think that artificial intelligence in the logistics sector can be a real game changer. It could actually be that the entire logistics world is being turned upside down here, simply because the technologies are so innovative and make things so much easier. And with all the data streams that currently exist and are still being built up and increasing, it will no longer be possible to reconcile and evaluate all this data from people and draw the right conclusions from it. That's why I already believe that AI support will be a very big issue there.
Are there any current trends that have an impact on your projects at Häger & Schmidt?
The big trend is, of course, but that is also a very important topic, the area of sustainability. This also plays a major role in our transports. As an inland shipping company, you are generally more sustainable because we can simply take a lot more with us than a single truck, for example. That speaks for the train and inland waterway products that we offer. Of course, it is also important to reposition yourself as a company and really rethink it. This year, we have set up a photovoltaic system on the roof and are trying to make our way into the future and become greener by using e-trucks, for example.
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Haeger & Schmidt Logistics
Häger & Schmidt Logistics, headquartered in Duisburg, is a leading logistics service provider with a focus on sustainable transport concepts for containers, steel products, heavy cargo and project cargo, particularly along the Rhine Corridor. Around 200 employees work in the areas of inland shipping, projects, port logistics, intermodal, freight forwarding and shortsea. Since 2013, the group has been part of the Austrian family company Felbermayr. https://haegerundschmidt.com/
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