Anyone who wants to be successful with their startup needs more than just an innovative idea and a lot of perseverance. A strong network is also an essential part of the recipe for success. This is where the Duisburg innovation platform startport has been helping since 2017. startport develops ambitious logistics solutions together with young founders and brings startups, investors, and companies from the logistics industry together. And it does so very successfully, as a current example shows: In June 2020, the Cologne-based startup how.fm was able to convince Bohnen Logistik, the contract logistics company of the duisport Group, with the help of the startport network.
“how.fm has been in our accelerator program since May 2019,” says Peter Trapp, Managing Director of startport. “The technology convinced us from the start because it offers a solution for the shortage of skilled workers in logistics. The collaboration with Bohnen Logistik is the perfect conclusion to a successful time together.”
Digital “Foremen”
The startup how.fm offers a digital trainer for the multilingual onboarding and support of employees, trainees, and temporary workers in logistics. Workers are guided step-by-step through operational rules and work processes via mobile interactive training videos. This also includes support during work via voice interaction. The special feature: The platform automatically translates training content into the workers’ native language. Around 20 languages are already available, with more to follow, says Andreas Kwiatkowski, one of the founders and Managing Director of how.fm: “Our training platform enables our customers to onboard, retrain, or upskill hundreds of employees simultaneously in the shortest possible time in a standardized way. At the same time, our customers use the training platform to increase the productivity and quality of operational processes. Especially in the current times, contactless training and remote assistance are important.”
Since the end of June this year, Bohnen Logistik has been using how.fm’s software for training related to warehouse logistics, from support in occupational safety topics to picking processes and the onboarding of new employees. “The how.fm platform is an ideal supplement to our classic employee training, which will of course continue to take place,” says Julian Schneider, Head of Sales & Customer Services at Bohnen Logistik. “Through the digital how.fm training, workflows and content, such as safety training, can be refreshed, and short-term changes—for example in packaging processes—can be communicated and implemented quickly, agilely, and intuitively via the platform. We now have a living process description without language barriers.”
“A motivating technical solution”
The topic of personnel often plays a decisive role in the logistics sector – and this is also the case at Bohnen Logistik. “We are always looking for qualified employees,” Volker Grzybowski, Managing Director of Bohnen Logistik, continues. “Our employees come from many countries; the language barrier during training and in practical support was often a problem. We are pleased that we can now offer our employees a motivating technical solution that is multilingual and personalized. In this way, we promote knowledge management and intercultural cooperation in our company, increase work quality, and create modern working conditions.”
From the collaboration with how.fm, the logistics company expects secure and high-quality processes through better-trained personnel, a reduction in the workload of key individuals, and an increase in productivity.