News from the Professorship

We started our hiking day at Grünhainichen-Borstendorf train station with the basic equipment of good shoes, rain protection and high spirits. First, we hiked along the Flöha river in the sunshine past a mill. Later, we entered the forest. We followed the Röthenbach stream and the bravest among us dared to enter the water treading pool. Refreshment then came from above. Umbrellas, capes and rain jackets were needed on the way to Borstendorf. From there, we continued on to the romantically situated Rochhausmühle. The chimney was already blazing in the quaint little pub and the rather long tour came to a convivial end.

In mid-April 2024, our team attended the 14th CLF conference. They successfully presented the paper "Balancing the 3-Legged-Stool of Learning Factories" at the Dutch University of Twente. Learning factories resemble controlled laboratories for experiments, comparable to the natural sciences. Using the metaphor of the three-legged stool and using examples from Chemnitz University of Technology's Experimental and Digital Factory, the study examines the challenges and opportunities for fully exploiting the benefits of learning factories.

The Chair of Factory Planning and Intralogistics supports the organization of the POMS College of Operational Excellence (OPEX) mini-conference that is to take place as part of the 34th Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) Conference in Minneapolis, MN. On April 25, 2024 there will be a keynote by Rogelio Oliva on Intervention as a Research Strategy, best paper award pitches and a visit to the Mill Museum. POMS conference will run from April 25 to April 29. It is one of the most important conferences for operations and supply chain scholars worldwide.

Digital technologies are a decisive lever for achieving Germany's climate targets. How can digitalization and sustainable development be brought together in a targeted manner? And where do Saxon companies stand on this path? On the "Digital Green" theme day, State Secretary Ines Fröhlich visited companies and research institutions to find out more about digital technologies, including the Mittelstand-Digital Zentrum Chemnitz. It introduces forward-looking topics, including AI and sustainability, and provides SMEs with targeted support for specific projects.

Together with the university's Career Service, students on the "Corporate Logistics" course visited the Deutsche Post mail center in Chemnitz. In contrast to the companies they had previously learned about, the logistical processing of letters places different demands on both the volume and the necessary automation. In addition to huge automatic sorting systems for all letter formats, the participants were also shown how the mail items are systematically allocated from large delivery districts to the zip code for the mail carrier's route-specific compilation. While most companies are primarily active in the early and late shifts, the largest processing volume in the mail center actually occurs in the evening and at night. This allowed the participants to get to know the existing machinery at first hand.