Fabian Klasen 
Duisburg, 11.06.2024 – Torben Radtke joined Haeger & Schmidt in 2018 as part of his master’s thesis and works in the field of process and project management. He is primarily engaged with digitalization projects and the search for innovative solutions, maintaining close collaboration with the innovation platform startport GmbH, a subsidiary of Duisburger Hafen AG.
The following interview was conducted in this context:
Can you give us an insight into your current logistics project? What are the goals behind it, and what innovative implementations are involved?
“We are currently working on several projects. One project I would like to highlight is an AI project and the development of a sales assistant. This involves automatically reading emails with customer inquiries about possible transports, extracting the data, and then automatically offering a transport proposal to the customer. In another project, we are currently trying to establish a supported disposition process. Given the current data flood, our dispatchers, who manage our trains and ships, should receive support so that all incoming data is consolidated. The restrictions are considered, and a disposition recommendation for our ships and trains is then issued.”
What specific challenges have you faced with the latest logistics project and its implementation?
“The challenge is always to involve all employees, to really make them part of the project. These people have so much operational knowledge that we definitely need to successfully implement this project. It is also crucial to get external input and support to make the project successful. Ultimately, we need to combine the technical expertise with knowledge of AI technologies within the project.”
How exactly did you involve the employees in the process?
“You have to talk to the employees right from the start and involve them in the project team. They should be on board from the beginning when formulating the requirements so that we truly understand what we want to develop and what problems need to be addressed. This ensures that the technical side develops in the right direction and meets the needs of the employees.”
Have you recently implemented any new procedures or technologies to optimize your logistics processes?
- Over the past few years, we have gradually introduced RPA processes. RPA stands for Robotic Process Automation. Here, we have robots perform simple processes, where the steps are always the same and need to be executed in the system. The robots take over the tasks that employees would otherwise do, providing relief.
- We have also tried to centralize platforms. For example, our platform for sea ship arrivals. Our dispatchers need to know when sea ships arrive at the ports. It was quite tedious to check the arrival times on the various platforms of the terminal operators. Therefore, we created an internal central platform where our dispatchers can check the arrival times of sea ships to improve their planning.
- For data integration, we use Lobster_data, which we affectionately call our data octopus. Through various API interfaces, we connect logistics solutions, establish links to customers, and have the ability to collect, process, and distribute data to our systems. We have already realized around 500 interfaces with this tool.
Speaking of robots, do they have a name, like some vacuum robots do?
The robotic processes themselves don’t have names. However, our frontend towards Chat-GPT does. It’s called HSL Hugo.
How do you see the role of artificial intelligence in the future of the logistics industry?
I believe that artificial intelligence can be a real game-changer in the logistics industry. It can truly revolutionize the logistics world because the technologies are so innovative and provide significant relief. Given the current and increasing data streams, it will no longer be possible to harmonize, evaluate, and draw the right conclusions from all this data manually. Therefore, AI support will become a very important topic.
Are there any current trends impacting your projects at Haeger & Schmidt?
The big trend, which is also a very important topic, is sustainability. This plays a major role in our transports. As an inland shipping company, we are already more sustainable because we can transport much more than a single truck. This supports our rail and inland shipping products. However, it is also important for us to reposition ourselves as a company and rethink our approach. This year, we installed a photovoltaic system on the roof and are trying to move towards the future and become greener, for example, by using electric trucks.