Creators, makers, pioneers

More than 12,000 employees, globally active and passionate about innovation — that is the way to achieve both market and technological leadership. We are Körber. Presenting our Group.

To overview

We are Körber

Körber is a leading international technology group that has more than 12,000 employees at over 100 locations worldwide. We are the home for entrepreneurs — we turn entrepreneurial thinking into customers success. Körber AG manages the Group and its four Business Areas: Digital, Pharma, Supply Chain and Technologies.

Insights

The Körber Insights shows the entire spectrum of the Körber world: We give our view of exciting developments and trends, as well as innovations and technologies. We also highlight personalities who drive Körber forward every day with their entrepreneurial spirit and new ideas.

Sustainability

Sustainability

We develop innovative products, solutions and services for a more sustainable tomorrow and introduce the people who make them possible. Find out more in our Sustainability Report 2023.

Online Sustainability Report 2023PDF Sustainability Report 2023

Körber pursues ambitious climate targets

In October 2023, we had the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) verify our commitment to achieving net-zero CO₂e emissions throughout the entire value chain by 2040. We would like to introduce you to some of the measures that will help us achieve this ambitious goal.

Group-wide standards for Ecodesign

We were able to advance our Ecodesign initiative decisively in 2023 after creating a group-wide standard for life cycle assessments (LCAs). Find out more about the first LCAs we implemented and the challenges we overcame.

Data and infrastructure protection

We aim to transform information security into a strategic objective and make it a shared concern for all employees. We provide an overview of the corresponding measures and projects in 2023.

Career

Career

Wanted: team players. The know-how, creativity, and dedication of our employees have made us a successful technology company in Germany and worldwide. Now we want to shape the future — with you! We offer exciting positions for experts, young professionals, university students, and high school students.

To CareerTo the Körber Group job market

"Modern leadership culture has a performance-enhancing effect"

A working climate that promotes innovation, diversity, and the courage to tell uncomfortable truths is more central than ever to a company's success today. In an interview, Gabriele Fanta, Head of Group Human Resources, explains how the new leadership principles at Körber specifically strengthen fruitful collaboration in everyday working life.

What comes after traineeship, Max?

Experience report: After graduating in mechatronics and mechanical engineering, Max Döring became a trainee at Körber. Today, he is Technical Product Manager at our Körber Business Area Pharma.

Procurement and Supply Chain Management

Procurement and Supply Chain Management

Joint future-proof activities are the foundation of sustainable procurement. Körber, as a globally leading technology group, therefore places great value on the optimal purchasing of materials and services.

To our Procurement and Supply Chain Management

Digital

How machine learning is revolutionizing Factory 4.0

Artificial intelligence is taking performance and efficiency in industrial manufacturing to a new level. With digital ventures such as FactoryPal or InspectifAI, Körber is raising the bar here.

Selection Day is a good occasion to unlock the secret of success of company building at Körber. At this event, five teams pitch their projects, which they have previously vetted for coherence and feasibility in a week of intensive boot camp work. The atmosphere is that of a typical start-up, a fresh, high-strung cheerfulness, with all the teams speaking without notes and often improvising during their twelve-minute slots. At the end of the day, only one project makes it to the next project phase – Selection Day in fact.

However, this event is less about a whimsical think tank and all the more about market size, untapped potential and customer base. With LOI, FTEs and EBITDA. The message is obvious: beyond all start-up romanticism, the key is whether an idea will have real market impact.

Revenues from the artificial intelligence (AI) software market worldwide from 2018 to 2025

"Industrial manufacturing is taking a giant leap by moving from hardware-driven control to software-driven control and eventually to one where artificial intelligence takes over large parts of the organizational processes," says Dr Christian Schlögel, Chief Digital Officer (CDO) at Körber. This is a complex undertaking making data-centered and holistic approaches more and more indispensable. "Digital software-as-a-service solutions along the value chain determine the future of the industry," says Christian Schlögel: "Smart algorithms, data science and machine learning provide huge potential.“

Körber established its Business Area Digital back in 2017 – initially to expedite the digital transformation of the technology group and to promote digital innovations within the established Körber Business Areas. The focus then shifted more in the direction of company building two years later. Its stated goal: to initiate specific projects to boost efficiency in industrial manufacturing and then launch them as independent start-ups into the market. Each year Körber aims to set up two to three such spin-offs. With around 250 employees, Körber Digital is already the largest company builder in Germany – and plans to grow to 500 employees by the end of 2022. 

A potential sales volume of 50 million euros is mandatory 

"Problems are our gold," says Daniel Szabo, who has been heading the Körber Business Area Digital since 2019 and is an entrepreneur through and through: With YOU MAWO, the 35-year-old co-founded what is now the world market leader for customized 3D printed eyewear, and with Additive Scale he founded a technology company that focuses on so-called "mass customization". In his role as CEO of Körber Business Area Digital, Szabo transfers this founding spirit onto his staff. His teams pay close attention to what is lacking in production and develop customized digital solutions.

Based on the Digital Innovation Process (DIP), an in-house three-stage model is used: phase one is for identifying current challenges and drafting distinct scenarios for the future of the markets in question. Phase two focuses on project potential and initial customers, before moving on to the company set-up in phase three. Projects selected by Körber for implementation and spin-off must have a potential sales volume of at least 50 million euros. 

In three cases, the roll-out has already been successfully completed or is in full swing. In 2020, FactoryPal was launched, whose SaaS solutions optimize the performance of plants with the help of AI algorithms . It started in the tissue industry, where the intelligent software delivers up to 30 percentage point increases in overall equipment effectiveness, OEE in short. An important feature of FactoryPal is that it runs not only on Körber systems, but also on those of its competitors.

"We never develop our solutions exclusively for plants of one manufacturer, but always industry- and machine-agnostic," says Daniel Szabo. This makes them easily adaptable for many customers and other manufacturing industries. For example, FactoryPal has recently also been used in Körber's Business Area Pharma to reduce the formation of bubbles in adhesives.       

In the fall of 2021, Körber Business Area Digital launched its second corporate venture, InspectifAI. The Karlsruhe-based company improves the optical inspection of pharmaceutical products, which is required by law. Up to now, these have been analyzed using static algorithms. In five to ten percent of the cases, the program is not certain whether the inspected products are flawless. And thus have to be checked manually by experts on site. InspectifAI's self-learning algorithms are now reducing the inspection rate to around 0.5 percent – an outstanding improvement that cuts both time and costs.  

Creating measurable added value

A third venture is in the process of roll-out. It offers AI-based solutions designed to use gamification software to boost the satisfaction of warehouse employees – in other words, by using playful assets such as rankings, high scores or progress bars. Particularly in warehouse management, where employee turnover is high in many places, the software has already led to a measurable rise in motivation among the workers in several pilot customer projects. The official launch is planned for spring 2022.

"Creating measurable added value is more in focus than ever in manufacturing," says Daniel Szabo, who intends to bring two more start-ups to market over the course of 2022 in the segments of sustainability and aftersales, thus doubling his workforce over the course of the year. 

With its company building approach, Körber's Business Area Digital is becoming a highly attractive employer in the fiercely competitive software and IT market. "We combine the best of both worlds," says Daniel Szabo. "The security of a worldwide operating company with tradition, network and stability, as well as the flexible conditions and agile methods of a start-up. We attach great importance to this. With any new venture, we assemble a new winning team of the best minds."

www.koerber-digital.com

Insights shows the entire spectrum of Körber, what we do and how we do it: We give our view of exciting developments and trends, as well as innovations and technologies. We also highlight personalities who drive Körber forward every day with their entrepreneurial spirit and new ideas - always to the benefit of our customers. In this section, you’ll find inspiring content concerning our topic Tech.

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Tech

"Our customers know: We can not only handle end-of-line, we can manage ecosystems"

With the PA15, Körber has developed a layer palletizer that meets the requirements of our industrial customers in an energy-efficient and flexible way. In this interview, manufacturing logistics experts Dominik Griefahn and Peter Lambeck provide insights into why the PA15 can serve as the centerpiece of operational pallet logistics.

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Tech

Why complex when it can be simple?!

Many provide individual solutions; only a few provide ecosystems. As experts in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, we at Körber rely on strategic ecosystem partnerships and offer our customers holistic solutions from a single source: everything, effortlessly, in one place.

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Tech

Körber evolves ecosystem partnership with Microsoft to create more value for customers

To help our customers become more efficient and agile in pharmaceutical production, we transformed our market-leading PAS-X Manufacturing Execution System (MES) offering into a cloud-based solution. The partnership with Microsoft plays a key role here.

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Tech

Pioneering information security with AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) provides hackers with new ways to attack organizations. But it also opens up opportunities for companies to better protect themselves against these attacks. Körber is, therefore, investing in AI and advising its customers to follow suit.

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Tech

Collaboration is key – the power of B2B ecosystems

At a time when new technologies and business models are rapidly entering the market, complexity increases. Interconnected solutions will allow us to realize our full potential in creating customer value.

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