With an anniversary gathering on 29 October 2025, the “warehouse logistics” community celebrated the 25-year history of the platform of the same name. Around 80 guests from logistics and IT gathered at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML in Dortmund. Under the motto “Logistics connects – 25 years warehouse logistics,” the event offered a versatile program of retrospectives, expert contributions and an outlook on future developments in logistics IT.
Role of intralogistics in an automated world
To begin, there was a keynote by Prof. Michael ten Hompel, former director of the Fraunhofer IML. Under the title “Intralogistics for a
posthuman era” he presented reflections on the role of intralogistics in an increasingly automated world. In the following roundtable, representatives of the community discussed the founding history and the key development steps of the platform, which started in 2000 as a database for Warehouse Management Systems (WMS). Since then it has developed into one of the world’s leading comparison platforms for logistics IT systems.
Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) coming into the database
Another highlight of the event was the announcement that in the future Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) will also be included in the database and validated. The expansion addresses the growing
demand for end-to-end IT solutions along the entire value chain. The aim is to better map the interface between production and logistics and to make synergies visible. Validation, as with WMS, Transportation Management Systems (TMS) and Resource Planning Systems (RPS), will be carried out according to Fraunhofer IML's standard procedure. Providers thus have the opportunity to have their systems evaluated neutrally and included in the database.
Background: Platform “warehouse logistics”
The “warehouse logistics” platform has been providing orientation in the opaque market of logistics IT for a quarter of a century. In addition to the technical system comparison, it enables professionals from
industry and research to gain a structured overview of available solutions. With currently 106 listed systems and an established validation process it is regarded as a reliable information source for companies seeking suitable software solutions for their logistics processes.
A look at the history shows the continuous development of the platform: After its founding in 2000, among other things the publication of regular market reports, the establishment of an expert advisory board, and the expansion to further system types such as TMS and RPS followed. In 2015, “warehouse logistics” played a key role in creating the VDI Guideline 3601 for Warehouse Management
