A smart solution for an efficient refill management for farmers
Meine Box-App
Overview
Three groups of students collaborated on a project together with the Maschinenringe Deutschland GmbH to offer farmers an independent B2C sales channel through sales boxes. The Meine Box app prototype developed by the students offers a technologically optimised refill management of sales boxes provided by Maschinenring.
The farmers’ need for an efficient B2C sales channel
The idea emerged from the farmers’ wish to establish an independent B2C sales channel. Thus, sales boxes which farmers can fill with products independently were developed. However, when choosing sales boxes as a selling point, one of the biggest problems is the logistics, as a farmer has no way of knowing how much stock is left in his box. This can lead to inefficiency both on the farmers’ as well as on the end-customers’ sides, as farmers might miss out on selling products and customers might find empty sales boxes.
The Meine Box app as the technological solution for inventory management
The students have found a solution to this problem on the farmers’ side: the Meine Box app. The app enables farmers to manage the inventory of their sales boxes in real time. The inventory tracking in the app is two-fold: Both restocked products as well as sold products are taken into account, so that the information in the app is reliable at all times. Also, the app is accessible from anywhere and increases the efficiency, sustainability, and technological optimization of the whole sales boxes process.
“The prototype of the Meine Box app is exactly what we wished for. Generally, I am sure that this solution is a great benefit to our farmers, who can now yield the potential of their own B2C sales channel with a technologically optimised refill management”, said Erwin Ballis, Chief Executive Officer at Maschinenringe Deutschland GmbH.
About the Co-Innovation Lab
This challenge was carried out as a joint project between the DTLab and the Co-Innovation Lab of the Munich University of Applied Sciences. The Co-Innovation Lab is a comprehensive concept for innovation projects between students and companies. Temporary innovation partnerships - in the form of projects - are created between companies, students and lecturers. Initiated by Prof. Holger Günzel and Prof. Lars Brehm (both Munich University of Applied Sciences), more than 25 innovation projects are currently carried out each year, often on an interdisciplinary basis. The Co-Innovation Lab is structured as an open community. Interested lecturers can use the concept of the Co-Innovation Lab in their courses and are welcome to actively participate in its further development.
Semester: Winter Semester 2021/22
Faculty: FK07 Computer Science & FK10 Business Administration
Lecturers: Prof. Lars Brehm; Prof. Dr.-Ing. Holger Günzel
Challenge Partner: Maschinenringe Deutschland GmbH
Supporting documents
During the challenge, the students created various documents:
More documents can be found on Github.