The Steinbeis Foundation Transfer Award honors a visionary partnership project in the intralogistics industry
This year’s Steinbeis Foundation Transfer Award – Löhn Award was won by the Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute (FSTI) and its partner enterprises Leadec FM BV & Co. KG, Liebherr-Hydraulikbagger GmbH and Sick AG for the project “New Mittelstand: Digital Platform Transport (DPT)”. The award recognizes an innovative, jointly developed intralogistics business model based on digital twins and collaborative data spaces.
The award ceremony, which was attended by some 200 invited guests, took place on July 25th, 2025, at the Steinbeis Campus Event, the annual networking event of the Steinbeis Network. The project partners’ Managing Directors accepted the award on behalf of the winning project team from the jury chaired by the Chairman of the Steinbeis Board of Trustees, Dr.-Ing. Leonhard Vilser. This year was the 19th time that the 10,000 euro prize has been awarded. It was established in 2004 in recognition of the achievements of Professor Dr. Dr. h. c. mult. Johann Löhn, former Chairman of the Steinbeis Foundation and now an honorary trustee.
The winning project “New Mittelstand: Digital Platform Transport (DPT) – From piloting to scaling cooperative business models” typifies the FSTI approach that treats research and application as an integrated process – a paradigm shift in technology transfer. The project aimed to develop and pilot a cooperative intralogistics business model. It started by asking how industrial services are changing as a result of digitalization – especially IoT, digital twins and AI – and how one might develop a cyber-physical business model based on these technologies.
Innovative, cooperative approach key to success
The project led to the establishment of LLS Logistik GmbH, a new ecosystem of partners Leadec FM BV & Co. KG, Liebherr-Hydraulikbagger GmbH and Sick AG led by the Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute. The consortium offers a cooperative service package for in-house transportation that uses digital twins of forklifts. This solution has been recognized as having great market potential and being extremely robust. LLS Logistik GmbH acts as a scalable project company that allows the partners to operate jointly on the market with low entry barriers. It is a practical example of the New Mittelstand’s collaborative, digital, growth-focused approach.
The keys to the project’s success are interdisciplinarity, a cultural shift in established companies, and active measures to close the (transfer) gap between ideas and implementation. The project shows medium-sized enterprises how shared expertise and collaborative value creation using new business models can help them to reposition and thus enable innovation within the ecosystem. The fact that LLS Logistik GmbH is already generating sustainable sales and gaining customers is proof positive that the transfer to a commercial environment has succeeded. Now, the time has come to move on to the scaling stage. The goals for this stage include expanding the service packages and establishing use cases to develop new intralogistics solutions.
The Löhn Award jury praised the project for the exemplary manner in which it reflects and builds on Steinbeis’ core philosophy by creating a process that integrates research, transfer and application. The pilot application’s high potential for transfer and multiplication is demonstrated by the successful implementation of the different partners’ joint insights.
Further information about the Transfer Award: www.loehn-preis.de
More information about the project: https://ferdinand-steinbeis-institut.de/case_study/dpt_lls/
“The full power of digital technology is only realized when different partners work together to create new business models. This is what turns industrial services from a reactive assistant into a proactive source of value. Together, we were able to translate theoretical knowledge into a concrete digital business model that draws on our existing capabilities and opens up new opportunities for us.” Alexander Bonk, Senior Vice President Operations Germany | Leadec Management Central Europe
“It’s amazing to see how effective a methodically and conceptually well organized ecosystem with the right partners can actually be. The ‘Digital Platform Transport’ implemented in conjunction with the FSTI and experts from Leadec, Sick and Liebherr enables digital innovation in the real-world operational environment, delivers concrete benefits, and motivates the entire workforce to achieve performance excellence. Throughout the project’s duration, the FSTI was able to create and adapt an outstanding environment that enables rapid and pragmatic progress. At the same time, this living lab with its open system architecture also provides an excellent launchpad for scaling the new digital services throughout the business.”
Michael Messer, Managing Director Production | Liebherr-Hydraulikbagger GmbHThe successful collaboration in the project is driven by the Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute’s extensive network and contacts, which make it possible to find a rapid, pragmatic solution to every new challenge. This enables practical implementation of the findings and ultimately translates into genuine business results and trusting cooperation between all the partners.”
Christoph Müller, Senior Vice President Integrated Automation | Sick AG
Contact
Prof. Dr. Heiner Lasi (author)
Academic Director
Ferdinand-Steinbeis-Gesellschaft für transferorientierte Forschung gGmbH der Steinbeis-Stiftung (FSG) (Stuttgart)
Dr. Patrick Weber (author)
Senior Research Fellow
Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute Stuttgart (Stuttgart)