How did the idea for FreightPilot actually come about? And who are the people in the team behind Freight Pilot?
Today we would like to give a brief insight into our founding history and also give our team a face.
The trend is obvious to all of us: More and more farms are turning to direct marketing. For many consumers, “Regional is the new organic.” Starting with small farm shops, marketing has now reached the front door with complex business processes with its own online shop and delivery service. However, the software solutions available on the market appeared outdated and often only supported individual process steps. Many friendly farmers were still processing their orders by hand in time-consuming office evenings buried under piles of paper.
This gave rise to the vision of a holistic system that can represent the entire process of direct agricultural marketing. All office activities should be digitized and automated in order to manage direct sales efficiently and thus save time and costs.
In autumn 2018, this changed FreightPilot Team came together and was able to get started with funding from the EXIST start-up grant. The scientific background should prove to be a major advantage. The FreightPilot was developed within ten months. In collaboration with four pilot customers, feedback was regularly obtained, improved and the software built up to final market readiness.
The founding team
Dr. Sebastian Terlunen grew up with agriculture himself and knows from his own experience how a farm works. The idea for suitable software was developed later as part of his work at the university. He completed his doctorate in 2016 with a final grade summa cum laude. He then worked as a postdoc in the Quantitative Methods in Logistics working group at the Institute of Business Informatics at WWU Münster together with Prof. Dr. Meisel on the topic of dynamic optimization in the application context of vehicle routing. When implementing the Freight Pilot, Sebastian was initially responsible for the design. As a result of his many years of involvement in the agricultural business environment and the resulting good networking, he is dedicated to the sales and strategic development of Freight Pilot.
Jan-Hendrik Büchler was a research assistant at the Department of Business Informatics and Logistics at WWU Münster until December 2018 and will also complete his doctorate there. His research focuses in particular on the development of innovative methods in operations research with the aim of optimally solving stochastic production and logistics problems. As an expert in the field of route planning and process optimization, Jan-Hendrik is responsible for the methodological development of Freight Pilot. In the future, he will focus on developing the backend for improved inventory management with support for production planning and the new development of route optimization for same-day deliveries.
Dr. Stefan Fleischer has worked at the Department of Business Informatics and Information Management at WWU Münster since 2006. His research focuses on process and data modelling using innovative information systems. As part of his work at the department, Stefan was primarily responsible for the design and implementation of software products that are successfully used in daily university and practical application contexts. He also has professional experience in planning and implementing software, consulting and transfer projects for the department and Prof. Becker GmbH. In terms of content, Stefan was primarily responsible for implementing the front-end when developing the FrachtPilot. With over 25 years of experience in software development, Stefan will continue to be responsible for the development and implementation of new functions in Freight Pilot.
The team is completed on the one hand by Michael Pötschki and Philip Schnittkamp in software development and software testing in order to guarantee the functionality of the software at all times. On the other hand, Béla Hecker and Jan Steinbach maintain direct contact with our customers in support. Of course, we and our team are also on social media and can be followed at relevant trade fairs in our sector.
The digital farm shop: Many farmers have a problem with direct marketing: The organization grows over their heads even with just a few customers. A start-up from Münster has developed a solution. Read more about this in our blog post.
