The movement of goods between producer, distributor and buyer is still full of interesting optimization potential in many companies - even though they are usually already highly automated. On the threshold of the Industry 4.0 age, two strategic factors are at work for the competitive advantages of tomorrow: ergonomics and autonomy.
Particularly in the relationship between large market players and their medium-sized suppliers, it is becoming increasingly important that even highly complex process chains are mapped in an easily understandable way and can be controlled error-free with little qualification effort. In addition, the significantly increased depth of integration requires a more intelligent behaviour of the process chain with regard to disruptive factors: These should not only be minimised, but should be autonomously recognised and eliminated at the moment of occurrence. To achieve this, the systems used must behave intelligently themselves and actively contribute to problem solving.