Training

The sustainable implementation of efficient processes requires a corporate culture that ensures continuous optimization. In order to achieve this level of operational excellence employees’ capabilities must be developed with regard to the identification and active pursuit of improvements. For this purpose, lean management principles and tools have to be implemented at all hierarchy levels (lean thinking). In many instances, learning factories have proved to be an appropriate platform to support this process of transformation. For the first time in Germany, this concept has now been transferred to the process industry with its special requirements by realizing a learning factory within a pharmaceutical company. The procedure of planning and deploying this industry-specific learning environment with the identified success factors are discussed in this paper.

Researchers and decision-makers in global logistics are constantly communicating and co-operating across disciplinary and cultural borders. Therefore, doctoral candidates in logistics need to learn and practice skills to cope with multi-dimensional diversity in their working environment. We present a dynamically evolving structured doctoral training programme offered to early stage researchers who are affiliated with the International Graduate School for Dynamics in Logistics in the Research Cluster LogDynamics at the University of Bremen.

Demographic trends have direct impact on production and logistics. They affect adversely both the work in the production hall and the company’s profit. To cope with these threats investment in the lower rank of management is necessary. The following article lines out how companies train their technicians and shift managers for the challenges of demographic change, which are in detail staff growing older, decreasing qualifications of new employees and higher staff turnover.

Given the current and anticipated future economic development in China, annual growth rates around 10 % and the opening of the Chinese market to logistics services, foreign logistics service providers are expecting annual growth of 30 % in this particularly lucrative market segment. One of the greatest challenges is the lack of sufficiently qualified Chinese logistics experts. This presents foreign research organizations and enterprises an opportunity to become active in China.