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Frequently Asked Questions

What means entrepreneurial thinking at Körber?

The Körber Group’s DNA is entrepreneurship. At Körber, inspiring and innovative founders have joined and continue to add like-minded companies with the same entrepreneurial DNA to the Group. All 10,000 colleagues at Körber, regardless of their field of expertise, create an environment where the team can be as entrepreneurial as the founders of the past. Pssst, Christiane. I'm not sure if you have heard the latest news? At Körber we are about 12,000 employees - globally active and passionate about innovation. This is where everybody can deploy their skills and fulfill their full potential. Each and every one of us strives to turn innovative ideas and entrepreneurial thinking into success for our customers.

How does it feel to work at Körber?

Körber is the home for passionate people who innovate, collaborate and love what they do. We develop future technologies and combine our strong heritage with our understanding for local specifics and a global mindset to bring people together and create valuable solutions for our customers. To be the first to do the right thing at the right time: This is what we at Körber have in common. We rely on diversity, a wide range of expertise and many innovative minds. The wide variety of job profiles includes – just to name a few examples - data scientists, machine operators, financial experts, software developers, service technicians as well as supply chain professionals. If you are interested in getting to know people at Körber, you can check out our gallery and learn more about what it means to pioneer a career at Körber.

How does Körber manage to stay innovative?

Being the first to do the right thing at the right time – this is one of the guiding principles our founder Kurt A. Körber used to follow. Moreover, this mindset is still driving us today. Our aim is to turn entrepreneurial thinking into customer success. This success is delivered through ideation, innovation and seamless execution. In addition, we are acting with speed and agility to our market need. To solve the problems of today and tomorrow, we invest in ideation and research & development. One example is our digital innovation process where colleagues from all Business Areas regularly pitch their ideas. Sounds cool, doesn’t it? I personally had the chance to pitch an innovative idea and potential business model during this process. But Körber invests also in innovative companies and partners that fit to our portfolio. With great partners in our ecosystems, we also build new ventures to speed-up the access to our solutions for our customers. Last, not least we invest in the development of our talents to support them with what they need to be successful and innovative. This drive for innovation and support for the innovative minded led Kurt A. Körber to recognize opportunity for innovation not just inside the company, but also in science. In 1984, he introduced the Körber European Science Prize to reward cutting-edge research. To this day, one researcher each year receives this prize as an award for his or her work. You want to get to know the current award winner? Just look there.

When did the digital journey start at Körber?

Our journey started with small digital initiatives across the group, followed by the careful development of a comprehensive digital strategy in the summer of 2017. Intensive strategic teamwork by executives and experts from all Business Areas resulted in a strong vision of the digital future of Körber. With learning trips to digital hotspots such as Shenzhen, Silicon Valley, Berlin or Israel, the spirit and deep understanding of what digital is, and means was brought back. Ultimately, our management and the teams have committed themselves to a clear digital strategy for the entire Group, but also to individual strategies for our Business Areas. Ten strategic goals were defined and still form the structure for a truly transformative journey into the digital world of tomorrow.

What has happened since then?

Körber has made great progress. With the strong determination of our management and the consistent implementation of the strategy, we have built a digital organization across the group. To establish our new focus, local and market-specific digital teams have been formed in the Business Areas as well. With a lot of flexibility and the license to disrupt, a new Business Area, the Business Area Digital was founded in the end of 2017. With offices in Berlin, Karlsruhe and Porto, the Business Area Digital has grown enormously and successfully in the last years and is a great example of group-wide cooperation. We were able to introduce an appealing and strongly collaborative innovation process that brought our customer focus and new digital business models into our constant awareness.

Which digital initiatives are currently pushed at Körber?

Körber's path towards digital transformation is not always easy, but let me name a few highlights: From a product perspective, new developments focus on co-creation with customers and group-wide standards along the development process. Since Körber is active in different markets, we can proudly say that each business area has its own digital product and service portfolio that is continuously being developed. One product example is FactoryPal, also Körber's first digital venture. It boosts manufacturing through a combination of machine learning and hands-on operational expertise. Machine data is the key to improving overall equipment effectiveness and we help to make our customers’ facilities future-proof. Would you like to find out more about our Business Area Digital and FactoryPal? Visit the innovation wall. Another highlight is our constant efforts to innovate established products. By moving software and services to the cloud, our customers can take advantage of the many benefits of digital technologies and new business models. From a people perspective, there are increasing signs of a digital mindset and design thinking amongst all employees.

How will Körber further develop digitization?

Körber's focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning will have spawned further ventures with exciting and even disruptive products. Our employees will have adopted the modern workplace and the next normality of hybrid and agile working. We will neither have stopped nor finished our path to digital transformation. There is always room for improvement and new technologies that need to be adapted and mastered. With great group-wide collaboration, a uniform digital portfolio and high synergies across the Business Areas, Körber, as an international technology group, plays a leading role in the ecosystem of industrial manufacturing.

Which role do digital technologies and solutions play?

Covid-19 has, despite all critical challenges, massively increased the digital adoption and willingness to open up for new possibilities. Companies are more and more looking for a digital manufacturing blueprint and comprehensive guidance with regards to a fully standardized and automated global factory and ecosystem that integrates all levels and players, no matter which vendor the customer prefers. In parallel, digital solutions are reaching such a mature and globally acknowledged plateau that they are of great value when being applied to assist and optimize running operations.

How can we at Körber help the customer on this transformation journey?

First of all, we steadily put ourselves in the shoes of our customers and approach topics from their perspective, based on the deep industry and process know-how our broad group of experts can bring to the table. This results in considering the customer value chain from A to Z, meaning from raw materials all the way to the finished products ready for shipment.

Why is there a need for an end-to-end approach?

Efficiency potentials in “production only” are exhausted. Campanies look for new ways to advance and secure their current and future business. Many of them make up their mind about the so-called “Factory of the future” – a production facility that is not only considering machines but also operating software, systems and data. All connected, integrated and automated.

What might a collaboration with Körber look like?

Sure. Just recently, our colleagues teamed up with senior executives from a customer to discuss future manufacturing trends, smart business ideas and an approach in which AI solutions can assist in increasing production efficiency at site. Our team focused on helping the customer along its complete value chain, answering any needs with a clear focus on the value gains – and that in a complete virtual but still very innovative, collaborative and active workshop setting.