Markus Schmermund will head up Linde's Intralogistic Solutions

Linde Material Handling has named Markus Schmermund for the newly created position of vice president Intralogistic Solutions. In this capacity, he will set up a new team of experts to harmonise and further expand the existing range of solutions for in-house logistics in the company's European organisation.

Schmermund will report directly to Andreas Krinninger, chairman of the executive board.

Over the past 20 years, Schmermund has held various operational management roles and worked as a management consultant in the logistics and intralogistics industry. Most recently, he served as vice president, enterprise solutions at SSI Schaefer.

"Digitisation enables completely new approaches to managing the entire range of intralogistics processes with maximum efficiency," says Krinninger. "To take advantage of this potential, companies need partners who look and think outside the box and offer solutions that go beyond their traditional core businesses."

In addition to forklifts, Linde Material Handling has, for some time, been offering connected vehicles, automation and fleet management solutions, as well as system technology such as VNA trucks and logistics trains. Combined with racking systems, conveyor technology or order-picking equipment, this enables complex projects to be implemented which optimise the entire material flow in a company, he adds.

In future, an expert team headed by Schmermund will work on further strengthening and expanding this expertise and the corresponding range of products and services.

"The team will be dedicated to further developing Linde MH's portfolio of solutions and establishing uniform approaches and standards," says Krinninger.

In addition, Linde's consultancy services should be expanded with regard to warehouse and material flow planning, as well as the optimisation of existing facilities. The introduction of uniform, software-based logistics systems is also envisaged.

Schmermund sees Linde as outstandingly well positioned for this task. "The approach of offering customised solutions for every vehicle or fleet application requires an in-depth understanding of the customer's specific needs. This is the best prerequisite for being successful as a provider of intralogistics solutions," he says. The goal for the future is to develop a kind of "construction kit" to implement and connect modular, scalable solutions.

"This will allow us to correspond to the diversity of our customers' business models and their associated specific requirements," states Schmermund.