Anita Würmser

Nominations have opened for Germany's Logistics Hall of Fame and the public can propose new members for the logistics pantheon online at www.logisticshalloffame.com until midnight on 22 May 2015.

The Hall of Fame was established in 2003 by Anita Würmser, who also founded the International Forklift Truck of the Year (IFOY) Award.

Würmser tells Forkliftaction.com News that although logistics has created so many innovations and also made life efficient and comfortable, its public image was negative.

"This eternal pantheon is also designed to remind future generations of the achievements of these individuals in the service of logistics. The aim of the Logistics Hall of Fame is to act as a worldwide platform to publicise the performance capability of logistics and its importance for society. The idea of the LHOF is to personalise logistics and show the world who brought us forward."

The Hall of Fame exists on the Internet only because Würmser says true perpetuity exists only in cyberspace. "But in fact, I receive(d) many requests to build a logistics hall of fame. Maybe a hall out of stone will become reality in the future."

The members of the nomination committee, which will this year convene at the Federal Transport Ministry, will be announced in May. The results of the jury's votes will be announced in October.

Würmser says: "We receive up to 30 proposals every year, but only one person or group is elected. Up to 10 candidates are nominated from all the proposals, and an expert jury made up of prominent figures chooses one new member from among the nominees."

New members appointed to the jury this year include Florian Gerster, former Federal Minister, President of the Federal Parcel and Express Logistics Association, Berlin; Thilo Jörgl, editor-in-chief of Logistik Heute, Munich; Klaus Koch, editor-in-chief, Logistik & Fördertechnik, Basel, Switzerland; Bernard Krone, managing director, Bernard Krone Holding GmbH & Co KG, Werlte; Dr Karl May, BMW Group, head of the flexibility management programme, restructuring of the planning and ordering process, Munich; Sascha Schmel, managing director of the VDMA Materials Handling and Intralogistics Sector Association, Frankfurt; Prof Dr-Ing habil Thorsten Schmidt, institute director, Dresden University of Technology, Faculty of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Professor for Technical Logistics; and Prof Dr Stephan M Wagner, executive director, University ETH Zürich, Switzerland.

Under the patronage of Alexander Dobrindt, the German Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, the Logistics Hall of Fame honours leading figures who have made outstanding efforts to promote the further development of logistics and supply chain management.

The achievements may be of a technical, strategic, scientific or business management nature; the achievements must not only have benefited an individual company but have had a positive impact on the entire logistics sector. Groups may apply or be proposed for induction.

Members of the logistics pantheon include Swiss logistics benefactor Klaus-Michael Kühne, the German contract logistics pioneers Heinz Fiege and Hugo Fiege, and logistics researcher and Fraunhofer Professor Michael ten Hompel.

Figures posthumously voted into the Hall of Fame include William Tunner, the man who organised the Berlin Airlift; Gottlieb Daimler, inventor of the truck; Gottfried Schenker as a pioneer of combined transportation; Eugene Clark, inventor of the forklift; Malcom McLean, father of containerisation; and Japanese Toyota manager Taiichi Ohno, who invented the just-in-time concept.

The initiative is supported by the Federal Ministry of Transport as well as the relevant sector associations, media and companies, including the Port of Duisburg (duisport), the Euro-FH University of Applied Sciences, logistics insurer Kravag, the Fahrzeugwerk Bernard Krone company, intralogistics provider Still, the Federal Central Cooperative for Road Transport (SVG) and the TimoCom freight exchange.

The Hall of Fame can be accessed at www.logistikhalloffame.de and features information and photos on logistics milestones and the people behind them.