Logistics is a broad subject area that influences all aspects of daily life. Dealing with all these aspects is not the aim of the Chair of Industrial Logistics. However, as part of the Montanuniversität Leoben, the Chair of Industrial Logistics has a clear focus on industrial enterprises, especially manufacturing companies in the process industry and their supply chains. Energy, trade and transportation are adjacent areas that can be an integral part of supply networks which are addressing the focus of the chair, too. As a rule, the Chair does not see itself as a research or project partner for pure energy, trade or transportation projects with no connection to industry.
Industrial logistics can therefore be found in the inbound and outbound material and information flows as well as in the inhouse processes of industrial manufacturing companies.
With regard to the material and information flows of manufacturing companies, the chair deals with three interlinked strategic fields and four complementary cross-sectional functions:
The chair fulfills the following interdisciplinary functions:
Project management
- The chair is responsible for project management and project management for industrial and research projects.
Education and training
- One of the central tasks of the chair is the integration of research results and project experience into academic teaching for students.
- Related to this is the research and definition of competence profiles and requirements for future logistics engineers.
- The training includes courses for practitioners so that knowledge can be transferred to Austrian companies. This strengthens Austria as a business location on the one hand and increases the visibility of the chair and the university on the other.
Modeling and simulation
- Because testing new processes, technologies and ecological measures in practice is often only possible to a limited extent, discrete-event simulations are well suited to testing and evaluating possible application scenarios.
- In this respect, the chair is building up expertise and partnerships in the field of discrete-event simulation of material flow systems and applies these in research, teaching and project work.
Techno-economic evaluation
- The assessment of new processes, technologies and ecological measures in the logistics environment must not be limited to technical feasibility or economic efficiency. In this respect, the Chair is building up expertise and tools in the field of techno-economic evaluation.
- These include TCO models, calculation tools and decision support systems.