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The IFA: Thinking Systematically About Production and Making It Future-Proof
The Institute for Factory Systems and Logistics (IFA) at Leibniz University Hannover focuses on the planning, design, and control of complex production systems. The goal of our research is to ensure that production systems remain sustainably competitive in the face of dynamic markets and technological upheavals.
Our work is characterized by the close integration of university teaching, methodologically sound research, and practical application. In cooperation with industry partners, public institutions, and scientific organizations, we develop models, methods, and decision-support tools that are both scientifically robust and industrially applicable, and that also find broad application and recognition internationally.
The Institute's Administration
Since April 2024, Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Matthias Schmidt has been heading the Institute for Factory Systems and Logistics at Leibniz University Hannover, leading this long-established research institution into a new era.
Schmidt had previously served as a professor of production management at the Institute for Production Engineering and Systems at Leuphana University Lüneburg since March 2018, where he also served as the institute’s director beginning in April 2019. In February 2018, he successfully completed his habilitation at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Leibniz University Hannover, thereby laying the foundation for his professorship.
His close ties to the IFA go back a long way: From July 2005 until he earned his doctorate in December 2010, Matthias Schmidt worked here as a research assistant. From January 2011 to September 2015, he headed the Research & Industry division at the IFA and served as honorary managing director of the Lower Saxony Research Center for Production Engineering from June 2011 to December 2017. Between October 2015 and September 2016, Schmidt served as acting director of the institute for Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Peter Nyhuis and was simultaneously a member of the board of the Production Technology Center Hannover during this time. In October 2016, he returned to his former role as Head of Research & Industry at the IFA and worked on his habilitation in parallel.
Since September 2020, Prof. Schmidt has been a member of the Scientific Society for Work and Business Organization (WGAB). In addition, he serves as an expert reviewer for the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR), and the Industrial Cooperative Research (IGF), and acts as a reviewer for international journals. These include, among others, Production Planning & Control and the International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management.
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Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Matthias Schmidt
Executive Director
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Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Matthias Schmidt
Executive Director
Phone
The departments and the team
Research at the IFA is organized into three research groups. This structure allows for a clear disciplinary focus while fostering close interdisciplinary collaboration. The research groups are complemented by the IFA Learning Factory, which serves as a cross-disciplinary platform linking research, teaching, and industrial applications. Here, new production concepts are developed and tested under realistic conditions and communicated equally within both industrial and academic contexts.
A hallmark of the IFA is an organizational structure that grants the research groups a high degree of autonomy. Flat hierarchies, transparent decision-making processes, and a strong culture of trust create space for initiative, professional development, and interdisciplinary exchange. Each research group is represented externally by a group spokesperson.
The institute thrives on the active participation of its staff and students. The latter are involved in research and industry projects at an early stage, thereby acquiring both methodological and practical skills. Industry and research partners benefit from application-oriented results and long-term collaborations.
Consulting Services and Technology Transfer
In addition to university-level teaching and rigorous research, the direct transfer of knowledge into business practice is a central pillar of the institute. To support companies on their path toward sustainable and efficient production, we offer targeted consulting services. Individual challenges require individual solutions: Drawing on our interdisciplinary research and numerous consulting projects across various industries, we develop customized, holistic concepts for your production-related organizational challenges.
Our in-depth consulting expertise and services for industry include, in particular:
- Factory planning and production management
- Production logistics and supply chain management
- Process optimization and lean production
- Digitalization and data analytics
Whether through concise quick checks for an initial assessment or through long-term collaborations, we support you in making your production competitive, adaptable, and sustainable.
Our history
The roots of today’s IFA date back to 1877, when Professor Hermann Fischer first offered a lecture on the planning and design of workshops and factory facilities at what was then the Technical University of Hanover. As industrialization progressed, this field of study steadily gained in importance.
In 1954, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering established the Chair of Industrial Machinery and Factory Facilities, which Professor Franz Otto Friedrich Schwerdtfeger headed until 1961. Dr.-Ing. Hans Kettner succeeded Schwerdtfeger in 1965 and founded the Institute for Factory Systems in 1966. He developed the four research areas of factory system planning, factory system operations, material handling technology, and plant engineering, which form the basis of today’s research groups.
With the institute’s move in 1973 to the new building on Callinstraße, the number of employees and the scope of the institute’s technical equipment increased significantly. Within the context of factory operations, extensive investigations into production lead times in practice were initiated for the first time, which later led to the Hanover Funnel Model, load-oriented order release, and the development of logistics characteristic curves.
Professor Hans-Peter Wiendahl took over as director of the IFA in 1979. The funnel model was extended to the entire factory, while the concept of the adaptable factory was developed in factory planning, and aerodynamic part arrangement and feeding were established in material handling technology. The Institute for Factory Systems was renamed the Institute for Factory Systems and Logistics in 2001.
From 2003 until March 31, 2024, Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Peter Nyhuis headed the IFA. With his appointment, the Department of Ergonomics, formerly part of the IADM (Institute for Ergonomics and Didactics of Mechanical Engineering under the direction of Prof. Manfred Schweres), was integrated into the IFA. In May 2004, the IFA, together with five other production engineering institutes at Leibniz University Hannover, moved into the Hannover Production Engineering Center (PZH) in Garbsen. Since April 1, 2024, Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Matthias Schmidt has headed the institute.
