CorporationThe future of parcel logistics rethought in “Makeathon” format
A Makeathon (from “to make” and “marathon”) is an interactive event for innovators with new ideas. At the VITRONIC Makeathon, teams work under high pressure, in two phases of 2 days each, on a given challenge and in competition for an attractive cash prize. In concrete terms, this means thinking together, developing new ideas, designing smart solutions and building the first demonstrators. Which team will find the most innovative solution?
Phase 1 of the event kicked off on April 24 at VITRONIC's headquarters in Wiesbaden, Germany. Teams of a maximum of 6 people came together to develop ideas for a problem that affects everyone: senders and recipients of parcels expect fast and cost-effective transportation as well as maximum transparency in parcel tracking with regard to the status and delivery process. The challenge for parcel service providers is therefore to transport parcels in a highly automated manner and as cost-effectively as possible.
Experts from the industry provided background knowledge from the technology company VITRONIC and a parcel service provider. Together with students and graduates, they coached and looked at the various ideas and their feasibility from different perspectives. VITRONIC has been on the market for 40 years and supplies its automation technologies to well-known logistics centers and freight airports worldwide, such as UPS and DHL. The expertise and understanding of the market is made available to the young talents at the event in order to bring together new approaches and known facts.
In the next step, the pitches of solution concepts will be further elaborated at the beginning of June and each team will build a demonstrator. Among other things, this forms the basis for the subsequent award ceremony, in which up to €5,000 can be won.
