The presentation held by Martin Schwemmer, Fraunhofer SCS, during a discussion concerning “The Next Generation of Logistics Professionals” revealed: in the future, humanity will be as in demand as IT-expertise.
In the future, 30 to 40 percent of logistics tasks will be replaced by machines. Martin Schwemmer, Deputy Director Logistics Market Intelligence at Fraunhofer SCS, quoted this number during his presentation on the subject "requirements for the next generation of logistics professionals". Though he put this number into perspective with a comparison: "In future, more than 70 percent of manufacturing jobs can be managed by machines." Especially so-called assistant jobs, meaning jobs without a specific education, will be dropped according to Schwemmer. "The better the education, the harder it is to replace you," he explained to the largely young audience.
According to Schwemmer, abilities like agility, flexibility, willingness to experiment and be innovative, as well as the positive handling of mistakes will count more than IT-skills, especially in the case of specialists and managers. Yet an intuitive handling of IT is a prerequisite. Extensive programming skills on the other hand are in high demand for specialists outside of management levels. His conclusion: "Digitization enhances the shortage of specialists, but the industry remains humane."
