Genius Lab in Raben Group - we bet on innovation!

For many years now Raben Group has been implementing innovative solutions in warehouse and transport processes as well as in IT tools and systems. An example of these activities is the myRaben.com platform launched in 2015. Thanks to the use of data cloud computing, the Group customers and consignees of goods delivered by Raben can use the Internet to have immediate access to orders, shipment statuses and invoices, or to use a personalized set of reports.Nowadays digitalization is entering all the logistics, transport and distribution processes. That is why, with the view to following new trends and vetting the possibility of implementing them in the company, at the beginning of 2017, a dedicated Research & Development Department was formed in Raben Group.

"In compliance with the latest practices in research and development work, Genius Lab deals with a specific solution until the stage of concept verification, after which the team makes a recommendation to implement it by other project teams inside the company. This allows for absolute focus of our resources on innovation" - says Zbigniew Kępiński, Genius Labb Manager.

Improving services, streamlining internal processes of customer service, or implementation of the latest technologies are just some of the areas of interest the new department is already working on.

"Out of many areas of digitalisation we have been hearing about a lot recently, my special attention was drawn to the notion of IoT (the Internet of Things). Introduction of sensors and exchanging a wide spectrum of information received from transported goods or means of transport, combined with traffic information such as congestions or road accidents. And above all the possibility of rapid analysis and reaction to business information gathered from such data will unquestionably revolutionize supply chain efficiency analysis." – says Zbigniew Kępiński, the head of Genius Lab.

The topics which will be handled first by the team include predictive analytics, issues of waste processing, industrial automation and the widely understood concept of developing logistics processes without the need of using paper documentation.

"We want to be a company which runs transport processes virtually without paper. CMR documents, delivery notes or goods released notes can be available in an electronic form for all participants of the delivery process. The project is named "paperless" and it is our ambition to get our business partners involved in it. Just like we were able to talk them into our "e-invoice = higher culture" campaign." – explains Zbigniew Kępiński.

Genius Lab has established cooperation with chambers and organizations which support innovations, start-ups, and associations which carry out activities for the benefit of innovative undertakings on the verge of logistics and other industry sectors. One of such initiatives is EIT FOOD, an international consortium aiming at the transformation of the food sector, which focuses on more effective utilization of resources and better satisfaction of consumer needs. EIT FOOD, as the Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC), will be the source of innovation for all the players which form the food supply chain. At present, the Genius Lab team in Robakowo near Poznań is composed of 4 persons but soon there will be new arrivals. On the one hand, the Department is looking for scientists, people with a knack for research, who are passionate about the convergence of logistics and modern IT. On the other hand, however, the team values innovators of business processes, people able to translate modern technologies into business-understandable language, who are able to form a bridge crossing the gap between new technologies and business.