The Fraunhofer IML and Keller & Kalmbach - a success story 

The collaboration between Fraunhofer IML and Keller & Kalmbach began in 2019 when the first joint project, the "Future Lab", was launched. Since then, a lot has happened. Not only has the "Future Lab" developed further, but other joint projects, such as the optimisation of internal processes, the modularisation of services and Keller & Kalmbach's Future Vision 2025, as well as a jointly conducted market study, are also "worth seeing".

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Study: Potentials in the cooperation with suppliers and service providers

Fraunhofer IML has identified the needs for cooperation with suppliers and service providers that have developed from the Corona crisis based on a study of industrial companies. The study was initiated by Keller & Kalmbach. The results can help you and your supply chain partners to prepare for the "New Normal" in the best possible way by taking into account the requirements of the market. We would like to share the findings from the study with you. You can download the white paper free of charge. Here you can find more information about the study.

Our vision for the future 2025

We are working intensively with the Fraunhofer IML Institute on the Future Vision 2025 for Keller & Kalmbach. Where do we see ourselves? What meaningful functions do we want to fulfil for our customers and society in the future? Together with the scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute and our employees, we have thought about this intensively in several seminars. We have also had a detailed visual image of the future developed - you can find it in the issue 122 of K&Kurier (page 4/5).

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Joint Future Lab

Keller & Kalmbach founded an Enterprise Lab at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML to develop innovative solutions to strengthen its role as one of the leading C-parts system suppliers. The focus of the Keller & Kalmbach Future Lab is on improving cooperation with customers and partners along the supply chain and optimising physical and digital processes with a view to a sustainable and future-proof business model.

"As a medium-sized family business, we see ourselves as having a certain obligation not only to implement new developments, but to actively drive them forward. We would like to support small and medium-sized companies in particular in introducing transparent processes and improving themselves - Industry 4.0 through the back door, so to speak," explains Dr Florian Seidl, Managing Director of Keller & Kalmbach. "Cooperation with a research institute like Fraunhofer IML is an important building block in this," says Seidl.

With the Future Lab at the Fraunhofer IML, Keller & Kalmbach wants to further expand its role as one of the leading system suppliers in C-parts management and in particular strengthen its future-oriented focus. The essential aim of the work in the Lab is to develop Keller & Kalmbach-specific solutions for supply chain management and logistics and to adapt data management, processes and structures to them. In cooperation with Fraunhofer IML, the concepts and solutions are to be developed and evaluated. 

In addition to specific sub-projects, which produce individual (IT) technical and organisational innovations and thus lead Keller & Kalmbach to the Business Model 2025, cross-sectional topics such as live tracking or innovations along the entire supply chain are the focus of the cooperation. For example, the use of new technologies is intended to minimise risks along the sometimes longer logistics chain from Asian countries and to detect impending delays early enough so that the self-regulating processes for automatic demand generation and delivery are not impaired. 

"We are very much looking forward to working with Keller & Kalmbach, an innovative company that is already acting as a driver of new technologies on the market," explains Prof. Dr. Michael Henke, Institute Director at Fraunhofer IML 2019, in the context of the founding of the Keller & Kalmbach Future Labs. "Especially for medium-sized businesses, the development and implementation of automated and, in the future, autonomous processes and corresponding innovative business models is essential in order to remain competitive in the age of digitalisation," says Henke.