Init : init brings innovation to the logistics sector

- Subsidiary company inola optimises planning from production through to packaging and delivery in real time
- Rapidly growing business segment in the Industry 4.0 environment

Karlsruhe/Pasching, 23. February 2017. Industry 4.0 demands that all players respond quicker to new situations. All the processes throughout the value-added chain, from production through to delivery, are thus being closely reviewed and need to be continually optimised. This is where the software solutions from inola - a subsidiary of init innovation in traffic systems AG - come in. The systems house from Karlsruhe has made fast progress in a rapidly-growing business segment.

inola founding Director, Ulrich Schmidt, summarises his company's approach: 'We are bringing innovation to the logistics sector so that customers can find the right answers to new challenges in real time'. The software developed by inola provides optimal results for critical issues such as: New order situation - how will this change our production planning? How can we save resources in packaging and shipping? How can we use our fleet efficiently and minimise lead times? However, first and foremost: How can we respond as quickly as possible to changes in the initial situation? These are issues that companies must resolve satisfactorily as they adopt Industry 4.0 if they wish to enjoy continued success.

Lightening start for start-up
The start-up company inola has itself managed to write its own success story in just a short period of time. Founded in August 2016 in the Upper Austrian town of Pasching in the Linz region, ten international companies in Central Europe are already using inola software in their supply chain management operations. And this trend is on the rise.

The first acquisition took place in December 2016: inola GmbH acquired the 'Advanced Optimization Core - AOC' optimisation technology from Arelion GmbH. AOC is a unique technology for quantitative optimisation and forms the new basis for inola products in the area of planning. With its ability to respond to data changes in real time, it is proving to be an excellent choice for logistics in Industry 4.0. AOC has formed part of the MOBILE-PLAN solution at the parent company init since 2013, where it is used for integrated duty scheduling and rotation planning for buses and trains.

The integration into the init Group not only facilitated the start of inola, it also offers a variety of options for opening up new potential in the market. The experience that init has gained over the last 30 years working on more than 400 international projects, making traffic operations more efficient, quick and attractive for customers through intelligent system solutions, can also be transferred to the logistics sector. Inversely, inola has the necessary user knowledge from logistics and industry to make the init hardware and software usable in this sector.

Industry needs Logistics 4.0 from inola
'Industry 4.0 needs Logistics 4.0. Our vision is to make inola the market leader in the long term for planning and optimisation operations in the logistics sector. This is already the case at init with its planning, dispatching, telematics and ticketing systems for buses and trains,' init's founder and CEO Dr Gottfried Greschner describes the perspectives.

The company's appearance at 'LogiMAT2017' - the international trade fair for distribution, materials handling and information flow in Stuttgart in March - will be an important milestone. inola will present a new product innovation - the inola Packaging Manager - an optimisation tool for loading and packaging planning that covers all stages of the logistics process, from the screw to the container in one calculation step.

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