Our society is currently experiencing multiple crises: politics and society are divided in the face of urgent economic, ecological and social challenges. The economy is also struggling to find its footing amid high energy prices, delayed investments and a general lack of optimism. The logistics industry is refocusing its efforts on what matters most to the community. At the non-profit organisation, the Open Logistics Foundation, companies in the logistics sector are working together to develop open source solutions to make the supply chain more efficient and sustainable – from idea to code. These developments benefit the entire industry, and the software is made available to the public free of charge. As these solutions are developed jointly by many companies and widely supported, they are more quickly accepted by the market. This model of cooperation, oriented towards the public good, is unprecedented in logistics and can serve as a blueprint for other industries.
Committed to a shared vision
The Open Logistics Foundation represents a new kind of civic-mindedness that has emerged from the unique challenges faced by companies, as well as their role in the economy and society. Securing supplies and meeting climate targets are immense tasks that the logistics industry has recognised for many years, and which every company is striving to fulfil — although individually. However, the robustness of supply chains and the sustainability of products and processes do not stop at company boundaries. They are a shared responsibility. This is the idea and strength of the Foundation: companies focus on commonalities and look to the future, rather than emphasising differences and allowing them to divide them. All members are committed to a vision that transcends their own company and strengthens logistics as a whole. Solutions are developed through dialogue, with companies contributing their individual perspectives with the aim of reaching an agreement.
Open source as a model for collaboration
The Open Logistics Foundation’s success is, of course, inconceivable without its most important tool: The open source development model, which serves as a guiding principle for open collaboration. The general understanding of open source development has undergone considerable change over the past two decades. While a volunteer culture of self-managed groups still prevailed at the beginning of the 2000s, the trend is now towards ‘a more industry-driven form of continuous research and development cooperation’, according to the 2020 report Open Source as an Innovation Driver for Industry 4.0 by the Research Advisory Board of Plattform Industrie 4.0 and acatech, the National Academy of Science and Engineering.
The open source model is also gaining ground because many software developments today are in the area of so-called commodities. These are non-market-differentiating, interchangeable basic functions — processes or services — and are therefore the opposite of unique selling propositions (USPs). In logistics, commodities often enable companies to manage internal processes more efficiently, for example by digitising transport information. They also fulfil customers’ expectations, such as the ability to track shipments in real-time, and help companies fulfil legal requirements, such as those relating to sustainability reporting.
If there is still a need for material incentives to encourage collaborative development, public spirit, and a focus on the common good, this should be acknowledged. In their working paper, The Value of Open Source Software, published in early 2024, economists Manuel Hoffmann, Frank Nagle, and Yanuo Zhou from Harvard Business School calculated that, without open source, companies would have to spend 3.5 times more on software than they currently do.
