One of our industry partners is looking for a customer data warehouse system that is easy and fast to implement to offer their customers an ETL (Extraction, Transformation, Loading) layer for on-premise software products. The solution should be able to integrate a layer for on-premise software products to provide updates and generate data insights for customers in the pharma industry.  

One of our industry partners is looking for a software solution to track, monitor and plan the data flow of cutting tools in the manufacturing process. The current paper-based process increases information asymmetry and requires strong manual effort to plan tool allocations effectively. Existing ERP software is in place but a new software solution would transform the overall process while aligning with the existing software. 

One of our industry partners is looking for a solution to optimize the line clearance process between two batch productions in the pharma industry. Currently, the process is monitored manually and shall be automated by including cameras and sensors to speed up the time for a batch change. The solution needs to interpret static and moving images under different environmental conditions (i.e. light changes).

One of our industry partners is looking for a solution to enable a remote factory acceptance on the shopfloor after a machine is assembled. The remote documentation needs to include a clear product documentation with videos and photos based on a pre-defined checklist. The solution shall also enable a remote commissioning on the customer-side to set-up and install the new machine on the customer shopfloor. This includes a video call with documentation functions. 

One of our manufacturing partners is looking for a tool to easily create, manage and distribute up to thousands of data sets (i.e. recipes) that are used to configure equipment/machines for production jobs in a user-oriented way and from/into multiple clients. These recipes include tool information, PLC data, and other physical machine settings. Key features would be a user-friendly but role-restricted creation & change of recipes supported by logic to create new recipes based on similarities of existing ones.

One of our manufacturing partners is looking for a condition monitoring and management application to track the energy consumption for individual machines. The solution shall access different variable information from the machine (i.e. through sensors) and additional information (i.e. process plans) to derive detailed information of the energy consumption to the overall production process and machine condition status. Secondly, the solution shall also enable a recommendation-based management to optimize overall energy efficiency.

One of our manufacturing partners is looking for a machine back-up and versioning control management application to enable centralized storing and roll-back of individual settings in one back-up system. The solution should enable automatic back-ups and the centralization of multiple data formats to increase a user-friendly configuration management and machine restoring operations.

One of our industry partners aims to reduce their production downtimes in order to increase the savings of unnecessary maintenance activities. They want to implement technology to monitor the conditions of equipment to predict maintenance needs in real-time. For this challenge, you would need to develop a statistic tool that is able to schedule and anticipate maintenance activities with the aim of increasing net running time and improving production efficiency and quality. 

One of our industry partners needs a customizable visualization of their production status with easier data analysis. They need a solution to collect existing production data in several independent databases. Currently, analytics and problem-solving are difficult to manage; transparency about the actual status of production is limited. They need to find a “Master Data Management Solution” which can be used by production leaders and process developers to understand the current situation of production as well as a basis for thorough data analytics. The tool should be customizable depending on the user's role.

One of our industry partners is looking for a solution to enable one source of truth for a customized visualization of their production status by a digital twin. They produce roll goods with several production steps, including inline and offline quality measurements. Data is gathered in one of the steps. This data is difficult to use in the next step as the product is either changing direction, cut off at beginning or end of the roll, shrinks in the process, etc. The solution should develop a digital twin model for roll goods, which can be used in several production steps and contains a “true picture” of the produced roll while also including all relevant production and quality data.

You receive details for your chosen manufacturing challenge, and a data set for your proof-of-concept and access to a group of mentors (i.e. Subject matter experts from our partners, industry experts from McKinsey and ETribes, data engineers and designers) to support you in proving your technology. 

Working day with your team 

2:00pm send your pitch video  

3:00 pm demonstration of all pitches + Q&A  

Winner ceremony  

First place will win €12,000, second place €6,000, third place €2,000  

Startups need to have at least two people with complementing business and tech-based skill sets, an existing piece of software based on a relevant idea, an MVP or a commercialized product. The competition language is English and German. 

The start-up challenge takes place on 20th-22nd of July 2020. You will have three days to customize a solution for the selected industry partner.

The start-up challenge is a remote event. We provide the appropriate infrastructure by Microsoft Teams so that you can develop and implement your POCs online. Our mentors will support you throughout the event. 

Start-up applications are open until the 26th of June 2020. Please select one challenge you want to solve and fill out the application form.

No, unfortunately, this is not possible. You must already bring a team of at least 2 people to be ready for action.  

You remain the owner of your contributions.   
Ideally, a partnership with you and an industry partner could start after the challenge. You and your industry partner will discuss the new contractual conditions without Körber’s involvement. 

During the whole start-up challenge you and your team will be supported by our mentors. They are all experts in specific fields, e.g. data engineering, strategic designers, and dedicated industry experts. They will support you with their feedback and knowledge. 

First place receives 60% of the investment pool of all partners, second place 30% and third place 10%. On the last day, you will pitch your solution and a jury consisting of industry partners who will evaluate your pitch. Based on this evaluation, the winner will be announced. 

You will use your own hardware and software to develop solutions for the start-up challenge. Körber's Business Area Digital does not provide notebooks, smartphones, or other hardware and / or software. 

The start-up challenge will be supported by Microsoft. The whole program takes place in Microsoft Teams.