“By establishing the Open Logistics Foundation, we certainly made a bit of history in logistics“, out-going Chairman Jochen Thewes said in view of the change of positions. „It has always been my belief that open source is the right way, if not the only way, to take digitalisation and standardisation in logistics to the next level.“
Dr. Stephan Peters, the new Chairman of the Board, added: “With our membership base growing as it is, we are now able to promote new, exciting projects, and to extend our resources, especially with regard to innovation and community management.“
Successor of Jochen Thewes within the Foundation’s Board will be Christa Koenen, CIO/CDO of DB Schenker. Stefan Hohm, CDO of Dachser, will remain member of the Board which consists of three persons. The changes in the Board’s structure were approved by the general meeting of Open Logistics e. V., the Foundation‘s Support Association accommodating the Community member organisations, and the Board of Trustees.
“eCMR” fully meets industry requirements; more Working Groups established
Since the Foundation’s establishment, the number of Community member organisations driving forward the development of open source solutions in logistics has more than doubled. „Especially ‘eCMR’, our first lighthouse project, has hit a nerve in the industry. Digitalisation of consignment notes is an issue many companies are affected by, and all of them back the idea“, said Andreas Nettsträter, CEO of the Foundation’s Head Office. „Meanwhile, many companies approach us with their project ideas, which reflects the huge diversity in logistics. And it shows that the time was right for a neutral organisation like the Open Logistics Foundation to emerge and provide a platform for promoting open source solutions.“
Today, the Foundation’s Community comprises twenty-three member organisations, among them the four founding members – Dachser, DB Schenker, duisport, and Rhenus. The spectrum of companies engaging in the Community ranges from startups to SMEs to large international enterprises, also from neighbouring European countries. Among the latest to join the Community are DHL, TransFollow, and IP Customs Solutions. Also, part of the Community are associations, such as DSLV (German freight forwarding and logistics association).
Alongside with „Electronic Transport Documents“, the Foundation‘s first Working Group, which is in charge of the „eCMR“ project, a second Working Group was recently established: „Digital Air Cargo“ is devoted to making air cargo transport more transparent. To that purpose, the Working Group’s first project, named „NE:ONE“, aims at implementing the data model and API specifications of IATA’s “ONE Record” standard. A third Working Group is currently being built up.
The Open Logistics Repository, the Foundation’s platform for developing open source solutions, currently accommodates source code for more than two dozens of software and hardware components, all of them designed to make processes in logistics simpler, faster, and more transparent for all parties involved. The source code primarily results from projects conducted by Fraunhofer IML (which is also a member of the Foundation’s Community) in connection with its “Silicon Economy” initiative.
Board Member Statements
Jochen Thewes: “Acting as Chairman of the Foundation’s Board has always been a pleasure for me. By establishing the Open Logistics Foundation, we certainly made a bit of history in logistics. It has always been my belief that open source is the right way, if not the only way, to take digitalisation and standardisation in logistics to the next level. I will continue to help pursue that goal also in the future, and I wish us all as much success in the future as we have had in the last twelve months.“
Dr. Stephan Peters: “It has been clearly signalled to the Open Logistics Foundation that the idea of open source has produced high hopes across the entire industry. We want to, and we can, live up to these expectations. With our membership base growing as it is, we are now able to promote new, exciting projects, and to extend our resources, especially with regard to innovation and community management. A lot of work is lying ahead of us, and I am looking forward to contributing my part now as Chairman of the Board.“
Stefan Hohm: “With the establishment of the Open Logistics Foundation, we set ourselves the goal of making basic applications publicly available in order to promote de-facto standards that are accepted across the entire industry. The Open Logistics Repository, the Foundation‘s development platform, already accommodates a considerable amount of source code. By using open source software and constantly developing it further, we are moving away from isolated solutions, allowing companies to refrain from building basic applications themselves and instead use their valuable resources to create real customer value and USPs.“
Christa Koenen: “Open source is gaining more and more momentum in logistics. The idea behind open source is to jointly develop software on the basis of a trustworthy collaboration of partners interacting at eye level. That mindset is what characterises the Open Logistics Foundation and its Community. With great pleasure and enthusiasm, I look forward to my new role as member of the Foundation’s Board of Directors. Together we will be working on making a difference in logistics.”
