The study series “Trends and Strategies in Logistics and Supply Chain Management” was launched by the BVL over 37 years ago and has since provided insights into future developments and possible courses of action, thus serving as a guide for logistics and supply chain management professionals. For the past 10 years, LogU has been responsible for the scientific implementation under the direction of Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kersten.
Key findings from this year's edition are:
• Cybersecurity, digitalization of business processes, and cost pressure are the current top trends in logistics and supply chain management
• Automation, business analytics, and artificial intelligence have become increasingly important over the past two years
• The shortage of qualified personnel continues to constrain many companies, but is no longer as acute as it was two years ago
• The issue of sustainability is currently being deprioritized due to the multiple crises facing companies
• Future-proof companies are successfully achieving a triple transformation—the transformation of their business in the areas of digitalization, sustainability, and resilience—in harmony with one another.
• Digital transformation is the foundation for resilient and sustainable value chains.
- Incompatibility with existing systems/interface issues and limited data quality and availability are the biggest challenges in digital transformation.
- Over the next five years, 68% of the companies surveyed will work on implementing and/or scaling AI.
- Sustainability initiatives are being driven more strongly from the perspective of cost advantages. 80% of companies have set specific targets for reducing CO2 emissions (+17.7% relative to 2023).
- The implementation of sustainable transport remains well below expectations due to customers' unwillingness to pay.
• The overall situation remains challenging
- Almost half of all companies expect the extent of disruptions in supply chains to increase over the next five years, with 86% seeing cyber incidents and data breaches as the greatest risk
- 82% consider the level of bureaucracy in Germany to be high, while 60% believe that logistics and SCM are not adequately represented in politics
The initial findings were presented and discussed in October in Berlin at a press conference held by the German Logistics Association (BVL) and at a session at Supply Chain CX, the leading event in the logistics sector, by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kersten, Dr. Birgit von See, and Sandra Heymann. The full study report will be published at the turn of the year and will be available online at bvl-trends.de. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Birgit von See (birgit.vonsee@tuhh.de).
