Der Perlentaucher unter den Buchläden Eichendorff21

Prof. Dr. Michael ten Hompel was born in 1958. He studied Electrical Engineering focusing on technical informatics at the RWTH in Aachen and graduated as PhD from the University of Witten/Herdecke. He started his professional career as scientist at the chair of Transportation and Warehousing of the University of Dortmund and at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Transport Technology and Goods Distribution. From 1989 to 1991 he was director of the Dortmund branch of IGS GmbH & Co. KG in Aachen, a company developing computer systems and networks. In 1988 Prof. ten Hompel founded GamBit GmbH, a company developing software for production and logistics management, today one of Germany's most successful companies in logistics. In 2000 he resigned from the board to become director of the Fraunhofer-Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (since 2005 managing director) where he is also head of the department "Material Flow Systems". He also holds the chair of Transportation and Warehousing at the University of Dortmund. Dr. Thorsten Schmidt, M.S. holds degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Dortmund and industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He currently heads the department machinery and systems at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Material Flow and Logistics, focusing on the design and technology of in-house material flow systems.