Patented pigments – heading from Leuna to the world.
Covering a surface area of around 10,000 square metres at the Leuna chemical site, FP-Pigments GmbH commissioned its production plant in the late summer of 2009 after being founded in 2008. Now, production capacities are being doubled as a result of the company expanding its production facilities. To this end, a second production line and a warehouse are being set up by the end of 2013. The total investment (which amounts to several million euros) is once again being supported by funding from the state, the federal government and the European Union. This will see the number of full-time jobs increase from 22 at present to at least 30. Read more.


Gunz Warenhandels GmbH wins an architecture award.
From a total of 60 projects put forward for the Architekturpreis des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt [Architecture Prize Awarded by the State of Saxony-Anhalt], the Gunz logistics centre based in Magdeburg (Saxony-Anhalt) was chosen for an award. The State of Saxony-Anhalt once again awarded the Architekturpreis des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt together with the Saxony-Anhalt Chamber of Architects. The prize has been awarded every three years since 1995 to the best submitted project. "The high quality and sheer breadth of current construction and planning tasks illustrate how just pioneering and contemporary new builds, conversions, expansions and building extensions in Saxony-Anhalt are," states patron Thomas Webel. The highest award, the Architekturpreis, was handed over at the Zentrum Taufe Eisleben in Lutherstadt (Saxony-Anhalt). Of the 60 entries submitted in total, 14 projects were short-listed, including the Gunz logistics centre. A jury team consisting of eight members decided which projects from these 14 would be accorded the honour of the Architekturpreis and five architecture awards. 1,900 residents of Sachsen-Anhalt voted on which project the audience prize would be awarded to directly. Read more.


Solvay is building new production plant in Genthin
Manufacture of special tensides / More than 30 new jobs. Solvay today announced today that it would like to build a production plant for special tensides in Genthin (a town in the Jerichower Land district). The annexe is set to house the development and manufacturing facilities for tensides used in Solvay's Cleaning, Care and Hygiene Products and Industrial Customers business sectors, which serve the markets in Central and Eastern Europe. "With this investment, we pushing forwards with our successful growth strategy of expanding production and development opportunities in a market- and customer-oriented fashion," said Emmanuel Butstraen, Chairman of Solvay Novecare. Read more.


New Fraunhofer innovation cluster set to improve energy and resource efficiency in production.
Rising energy and raw material costs are becoming an important competitive factor for Saxony-Anhalt's economy. Under the management of the Fraunhofer IFF in Magdeburg, innovative solutions are therefore being developed in the new ER-WIN innovation cluster in order to improve efficiency in energy and resource consumption within the state’s manufacturing industry. It's not only the state of Saxony-Anhalt that's facing the question of what it ought to do against steadily rising energy costs Rising energy and raw material prices, the need to reduce carbon footprints and higher energy grid fees being anticipated in the long term are forcing companies to rethink their resource consumption and switch to regionally and sustainably produced energy supplies. Above all, the state’s energy-intensive manufacturing industry has to adapt its processes to these new circumstances as quickly as possible in order to remain competitive. Read more.

With a new Master's degree in Logistics Management, the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in Bernburg is raising its profile for educating logistics experts. Just in time for the summer semester, which has just started, 16 students decided to continue studying for a Bachelor's degree after successfully completing their school-leaving qualifications. Indeed, some of them even rejected enticing offers from a renowned sports car manufacturer in Germany.

Professor Dr Frank Himpel, who has lectured in Logistics and Production Management at Anhalt University of Applied Sciences since October 2010, thinks that the university students and the affiliated Institute for Logistics are taking a leap of faith. "We attach a great deal of importance to the fact that students work closely with companies during their degree. Without the practical relevance of research, the understanding of cause-and-effect relationships would not be sufficient in highly complex logistics and production management processes," explains Himpel.

In this way, German and Russian students at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences have critically questioned freight train operator DB Schenker with regard to car parts being transported from Germany to Kaluga, 170 kilometres south-west of Moscow, and to Shenyang in China. They may not have 30 years of train-related experience, but they do have a fresh eye and are highly motivated when it comes to thinking systematically.

Himpel is certain that the best possible way of combining content from both theory and practice and thus optimising the European freight transport industry is by having companies and aspiring specialists working together like this. He goes on to explain that this kind of cooperation is a matter close to the heart of the logistics institute he founded. Here, students come into contact with practice and companies get to know potential future employees, who are able to manage and improve logistical processes, by working together with them on current research topics.

Logistics is a growth industry. Companies are increasingly recognising and valuing just how important optimum logistics and company management when it comes to staying competitive on the international scene. "There's never one right solution in logistics, but then, there's never an incorrect one, either. There are always several ways," the professor adds. To find a good way, he continues, logistics experts have to be coordinators who bring all of the individual parts of a process together.
In this way, during the "2013 Logistics Summer School" – an additional module course during the lecture-free period which students spent at DHL in Leipzig and at Frankfurt Airport, to name but a few places – Himpel's students were able to learn that a long logistical chain can only be maintained if even the forklift drivers in the warehouses and the workers in the cold warehouses have the freedom they need to complete their tasks. After all, as Himpel says, logistics is always something done with and for people. Meanwhile, his students demonstrated that they ask the right questions at the airport hub. "I am proud of my students", says the professor, who has recorded a considerable increase in demand for collaboration over the last six months. Also, companies were increasingly offering topics for student internships and dissertations.

Himpel sees this as being milestone towards long-term partnerships. "Let's just say that our university doesn't have an endowment capital of €10 million. But here, I have freedom and opportunities, where elsewhere there would be thumbscrews," says Himpel, drawing a comparison. A native of Hesse, Professor Himpel was involved in projects in Europe and the US even during his Business Administration degree. Teaching posts in Logistics and Production Management took him to the Warsaw School of Economics and to China.

After completing his PhD, Prof. Himpel qualified as a professor with a dissertation on "Competition for cooperation in air transport alliances". He completely re-established this field of research, which examines possibilities of cooperation between competitors.

The professor considers graduates that can hold their ground on the market as being the best publicity for the logistics degree. And the has market caught on: Himpel estimates that whilst actually doing their degree one third, or maybe even half, of his students receive specialised offers for student-based and subsequent cooperation.


Author: Ute Semkat

Contact:
Anhalt University of Applied Sciences
Prof. Dr habil. Frank Himpel
Director of the Institute for Logistics
Strenzfelder Allee 28
06406 Bernburg
ph: +49 3471 355 1334
E-Mail: f.himpel@wi.hs-anhalt.de
f.himpel@wi.hs-anhalt.de