Students and professionals work hand in hand on efficient parcel tracking solutions at VITRONIC in Wiesbaden
A Makeathon (from “to make” and “marathon”) is an interactive event for innovators with new ideas. At the VITRONIC Makeathon, teams work under high pressure, in two phases of 2 days each, on a given challenge and in competition for an attractive cash prize. In concrete terms, this means thinking together, developing new ideas, designing smart solutions and building the first demonstrators. Which team will find the most innovative solution?
Phase 1 of the event kicked off on April 24 at VITRONIC's headquarters in Wiesbaden, Germany. Teams of a maximum of 6 people came together to develop ideas for a problem that affects everyone: senders and recipients of parcels expect fast and cost-effective transportation as well as maximum transparency in parcel tracking with regard to the status and delivery process. The challenge for parcel service providers is therefore to transport parcels in a highly automated manner and as cost-effectively as possible.
Experts from the industry provided background knowledge from the technology company VITRONIC and a parcel service provider. Together with students and graduates, they coached and looked at the various ideas and their feasibility from different perspectives. VITRONIC has been on the market for 40 years and supplies its automation technologies to well-known logistics centers and freight airports worldwide, such as UPS and DHL. The expertise and understanding of the market is made available to the young talents at the event in order to bring together new approaches and known facts.
In the next step, the pitches of solution concepts will be further elaborated at the beginning of June and each team will build a demonstrator. Among other things, this forms the basis for the subsequent award ceremony, in which up to €5,000 can be won.
VITRONIC is the world's leading innovation driver for machine vision, enabling its customers to master the challenges of tomorrow.
The global group of companies develops forward-looking solutions in the form of specialized products and software for image-based quality inspection, identification and process optimization, which find application in the growth sectors of automation and traffic engineering.
VITRONIC solutions make an important contribution to helping shape a safe and sustainable world. The existing limits of what is economically feasible are constantly being questioned in order to achieve the highest quality and productivity, for example in the production of automotive and pharmaceutical companies. Worldwide, Auto-ID solutions in logistics centers and at cargo airports, take over the reliable and efficient recording of shipments and thus ensure a transparent flow of goods.
In the transport sector, VITRONIC offers leading technology for increased safety on the roads, for optimizing traffic flow and for recording road usage.
Open and honest dealings with our customers form the foundation for jointly exploiting technological and process potential to the full. Joint success forms the basis of long-term cooperation with companies such as B. Braun, BMW, Daimler, DHL, UPS, Fresenius and Sanofi as well as with public clients.
Since its foundation in 1984, VITRONIC has been growing continuously for 40 years. The current annual turnover (2023) is above 240 million EUR and the company is currently represented on five continents in over 80 countries with approximately 1,400 employees. Since 2024 the company is part of ITIS Holding, leveraging the strengths of both entities, creating a strong end-to-end ITS and automation provider.
Development and production of VITRONIC systems are located at the company headquarters in Wiesbaden. VITRONIC subsidiaries span across all continents, including North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. Additionally, a global network of sales and service partners ensures localized support for international customers.