“The future belongs to logistics” – stated the chairman of the German Logistics Association (BVL), Prof. Raimund Klinkner, concluding his opening speech at this year’s 24th BVL German Logistics Congress, which took place from October 17-19, 2007, in Berlin. 3,500 participants from 45 countries had the opportunity to learn about, among other things, the latest trends in logistics, the results of the best European logistics projects, and the state of logistics education. This year’s BVL Congress was accompanied for the first time by the Eurolog congress, organized by the European Logistics Association, which currently brings together 30 national logistics organizations (representing 50,000 members). Both events, due to their scale and substantive value, deserve to be called the most important logistics event of the year.
Prof. Klinkner highlighted a very important aspect demonstrating the dynamic development of logistics, pointing out that the logistics industry in Germany needs 12,000 educated professionals annually. Universities offering logistics-related degrees currently produce only 3,000 graduates, and companies acquire 4,000 professionals in this field through the restructuring of internal processes. The data shows that there is a shortage of 5,000 educated logisticians in Germany. Issues related to education and careers in logistics were the subject of a special session and were also included as one of the points at the press conference held on the first day of the congress. Prof. Frank Straube from the Technische Universität Berlin drew attention to them in his speech, presenting interesting and quite surprising results of research conducted by the university. They show that 2.6 million employees are involved in logistics-related activities in Germany, but on average only 17.5% have a higher education degree related to logistics (in industry this percentage is 24%, in trade – 18%, in the logistics services sector – 12%).
It is worth mentioning other research projects and reports presented in Berlin on this occasion. These include: the report titled “International Procurement in Emerging Markets” and the bestLog project, as sources of knowledge about best practices in European logistics. Another important initiative prepared in connection with the congress was the presentation of the “BVL Logistics Indicator”. As many as 200 German companies, in which the logistics function plays a key role (including companies such as Audi, Bosch, Siemens, Kraft Foods, and Metro), are participating in the research that has already begun. The results will be presented quarterly.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 6/2007.