Project ‘Digitalization of Intermodal Supply Chains – KV 4.0’ Completed

The digitalization project KV 4.0, which was funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) as part of the research initiative Modernity Fund (mFUND) to achieve comprehensive digitalization of intermodal supply chains, was successfully completed on February 28, 2021. A company for marketing the new data hub is currently in the founding process.

(Frankfurt/Main) As the companies involved in the project now report, all planned work packages were conceptually addressed during the project period of three and a half years, and a demonstrator was presented. The resulting insights were incorporated into the technical design and programming of a data hub. Currently, an operating company is in the founding process, which will further develop the data hub and market it to interested parties in the future. The future customer base of the new company includes all actors in the intermodal transport chain, ranging from freight forwarders and terminals to railway companies and operators.

EDIGES Format as Standard Language for Data Exchange

The demonstrator with its user interface already serves the project members as an efficient tool for maintaining master data, such as contact and communication data of terminals. In addition, user permissions are granted and managed through the web interface. Schedule data is integrated into the data hub via standardized interface solutions. The data of the intermodal transport chain can be transferred to the users’ own IT systems through the connected users. This is made possible by the EDIGES format as the standard language for data exchange within the intermodal supply chain.

The new web interface of the demonstrator is part of the project “Digitalization of Intermodal Supply Chains – KV 4.0” completed on February 28, 2021.

“All project partners have worked extremely diligently throughout the entire project period from conception to implementation and have contributed their valuable expertise in a goal-oriented manner, so that we can now all be proud of what we have achieved together,” states project manager Katja Schräder. “Even a change in working methods due to the corona-related requirements could not stop us from successfully completing the project. With the results now available, we have laid the foundation for the further development of the original project idea to optimize intermodal transport in its execution. With many companies connecting to the KV 4.0 data hub, it will become evident in live operations that the support from the Federal Ministry of Transport and the hard work of all project partners have more than paid off.”

Important Measure for Modernizing Intermodal Transport

The project “Digitalization of Intermodal Supply Chains – KV 4.0” has advanced an important measure for the modernization and future viability of the intermodal sector within the logistics industry. The consortium partners DB Cargo, Lokomotion, SBB Cargo Deutschland, KTL Kombi-Terminal Ludwigshafen GmbH, Hupac, HOYER Group, Paneuropa Transport, Hupac Intermodal, Bertschi, and Kombiverkehr began work on the project back in September 2017. The main goal of KV 4.0 was to make the logistical process more transparent and clearer across the entire intermodal transport chain, starting from the pickup of the loading unit at the sender to the delivery at the recipient. The project was divided into various technical work packages. These included, for example, “Schedule Data KV Operators,” “Order Data Forwarder,” “Status Reports Terminal,” and “Train Flow Report Railway Company.” Furthermore, the project group has now opened the opportunity with the development of the new data hub to exchange the information crucial for the end customer regarding the arrival of their loading unit at the destination terminal (“ETA Arrival/Provision”).