Supply guarantor and job engine in the logistics sector

With more than 150 events, com­pa­nies pro­mot­ed more recog­ni­tion and appre­ci­a­tion for logis­tics as Ger­many’s third-largest eco­nom­ic sec­tor on the occa­sion of Logis­tics Day on April 21, 2022. At the cen­tral online press con­fer­ence, streamed from the House of Logis­tics and Mobil­i­ty (HOLM) in Frank­furt am Main, rep­re­sen­ta­tives from pol­i­tics and busi­ness dis­cussed the impor­tance and sys­tem-rel­e­vant sup­ply func­tion of logis­tics. In addi­tion to cur­rent devel­op­ments and chal­lenges in the eco­nom­ic sec­tor, includ­ing the armed con­flicts in Ukraine, the Coro­na pan­dem­ic, and the short­age of goods and com­modi­ties, the dis­cus­sion focused on the impor­tance of inno­va­tion and sus­tain­abil­i­ty as well as the diverse employ­ment and career oppor­tu­ni­ties in logistics.

Supply and complexity: smart logistics is key

“As an export nation in the heart of Europe, strong logis­tics is enor­mous­ly impor­tant for our coun­try. To remain the logis­tics world cham­pi­on in the future, Ger­many needs well-trained spe­cial­ists for this. These high per­form­ers of tomor­row are the basis for secu­ri­ty of sup­ply and val­ue creation.”

- Oliv­er Luk­sic, Par­lia­men­tary State Secretary

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Wim­mer, Chair­man of the Board of the Ger­man Logis­tics Asso­ci­a­tion (BVL), empha­sized the com­plex­i­ty as well as the inno­v­a­tive capac­i­ty of logis­tics: “Logis­tics is cru­cial for main­tain­ing pro­duc­tion and ensur­ing the sup­ply of impor­tant goods such as food or med­i­cines. Logis­ti­cians are faced with high­ly com­plex tasks every day. Logis­tics and sup­ply chain man­age­ment offer around 200 dif­fer­ent pro­fes­sions, not only in logis­tics ser­vices, but also in indus­tri­al and com­mer­cial logis­tics. In addi­tion to well-func­tion­ing plan­ning of the sen­si­tive flow of goods, there are oth­er demand­ing tasks, such as set­ting up flex­i­ble pro­duc­tion facil­i­ties. For secure process­es, we need spe­cial­ists today and in the future who are cos­mopoli­tan, and who enjoy both tech­nol­o­gy and sustainability.”

Providing opportunities for municipalities

Alexan­der Hand­schuh, spokesman for the Ger­man Asso­ci­a­tion of Towns and Munic­i­pal­i­ties (DSt­GB), empha­sized the role of logis­tics as an oppor­tu­ni­ty provider for the munic­i­pal­i­ties and the peo­ple liv­ing in them: “For the munic­i­pal­i­ties and cit­i­zens, logis­tics is a cen­tral fac­tor in the qual­i­ty of loca­tion and life. Thanks to well-func­tion­ing sup­ply struc­tures, the indus­try has a val­ue-cre­at­ing func­tion that is strength­ened by the cre­ation of jobs and busi­ness tax rev­enues. Trans­paren­cy and dia­log between munic­i­pal and busi­ness rep­re­sen­ta­tives can help find solu­tions to the chal­lenges of local set­tle­ment projects. Fur­ther­more, with inno­v­a­tive con­cepts in the real estate sec­tor as well as in the mobil­i­ty and trans­port sec­tor, logis­tics shows that it can cre­ate diverse added val­ues for municipalities.”

New Amazon study “Logistics as a working environment” published

At the press con­fer­ence, the study results of the cur­rent, rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ama­zon sur­vey “Work­ing World Logis­tics” were also dis­cussed. For this pur­pose, the glob­al­ly active online mail order com­pa­ny had con­duct­ed a sur­vey among 1,001 respon­dents in March and April 2022, pre­pared with sci­en­tif­ic sup­port by Prof. Dr. Chris­t­ian Kille, Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences Würzburg-Schwe­in­furt FHWS. The aim of the study was to make an active con­tri­bu­tion to com­bat­ing the short­age of spe­cial­ists and junior staff in logis­tics. The results show that young peo­ple in par­tic­u­lar still have a lack of infor­ma­tion about the ser­vices and func­tions of logis­tics and its role as an employ­er. The image is also less pos­i­tive than among those sur­veyed who are already in pro­fes­sion­al practice.

Nor­bert Bran­dau, Region­al Direc­tor Ama­zon, explained: “The short­age of skilled and junior staff is one of the biggest chal­lenges for logis­tics. The Ama­zon study con­firms that we need to do even more to increase the trans­paren­cy of the eco­nom­ic sec­tor. Logis­tics must not be a black box for young peo­ple. This also includes giv­ing prospects and invest­ing in peo­ple as well as tech­nol­o­gy. At Ama­zon, we employ more than 30,000 peo­ple in Ger­many, 20,000 of them per­ma­nent employ­ees in logis­tics alone. By the end of the year, we will be oper­at­ing 20 large logis­tics cen­ters with a huge range of jobs for peo­ple with­out qual­i­fi­ca­tions as well as for spe­cial­ists and man­agers. Our train­ing and devel­op­ment pro­grams and our dual study pro­gram offer excit­ing prospects for career and employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. I encour­age inter­est­ed par­ties to take this sec­tor of the econ­o­my into con­sid­er­a­tion, because logis­tics is high­ly exciting.”