B IS FOR BUILDING MATERIAL LOGISTICS
Find out why building materials need software
It is a classics for us: time-critical materials have to arrive on time, in the right quantity, with the right quality, at the right place!
Do you know the most perishable product in the world? Meat? Fish? Cream? Sorry, wrong! It’s concrete. Concrete is extremely time-sensitive: once mixing starts, its workability drops and the delivery/discharge window is typically limited by project requirements—generally around 1–2 hours, depending on the mix design and conditions. So, the trip from the concrete plant to the construction site can’t take any longer than that. Reliable construction is therefore, above all, a matter of reliable transport logistics. That’s exactly why concrete is such a special material for us, because we’re driven by the passion to solve challenges like these.
One of the biggest planning headache in day-to-day operations
Now imagine building a large underground parking garage that requires 1,000 cubic meters of concrete. That takes 125 trucks. And picture that job site in a major city like London.
That means:
- 125 trucks departing from different concrete plants
- 125 trucks on the road in big-city traffic
- 125 trucks that must arrive at the site on time
- 125 trucks that have to unload in a tightly timed sequence, one after another, so the concrete can be poured continuously and set properly, without interruption.
Would you feel confident coordinating that? If not, don’t worry. Even for experienced dispatchers, this kind of coordination becomes extremely challenging, especially under real-world constraints.
That’s why we taught our software to do it. Today, building materials producers use our modern, AI-based algorithms to handle these highly complex, time-critical planning tasks with ease. One example is our work on the Battersea Power Station project in London. In 2023, our software coordinated up to 400 truck deliveries per day there. We love building materials!
Our AI turns time-critical, high-stakes deliveries into reliable, low-waste, on-time operation.
B IS ALSO FOR
BEGINNING
Fifty-seven years ago, we started as a pioneer. Today, we are an internationally leading optimization specialist.
The history of INFORM began 1969
Two factors were crucial to its founding: the pioneering spirit of a world-renowned scientist and mastery of one of the oldest AI methods. This researcher is Prof. Hans-Jürgen Zimmermann, who specializes in an AI application called mathematical optimization and the related field of operations research (OR). Zimmermann recognized that OR is the best tool for making decisions when it comes to optimizing complex business processes with numerous interdependencies.
This was the decisive impetus for founding INFORM. Zimmermann’s goal was to demonstrate that companies could save significant amounts of money through pure computation. To this end, INFORM focuses on developing intelligent algorithms using mathematical optimization. This was during a time when the concept of AI was virtually unknown and digital data was scarce in companies. Nevertheless, the endeavor succeeded, establishing INFORM as one of the first companies to apply OR methods to economic processes with software systems.
The effectiveness of mathematical optimization has long since been proven. Today, we serve over 1,000 active customers worldwide. Our AI-based IT systems empower them to consistently make the best possible decisions when planning and executing complex industrial and logistical processes.
I wanted to show that OR can help you make better decisions.
Prof. Dr. h.c.mult. Hans-Jürgen Zimmermann
