HISTORY
The 1950's – Foundation and a New Direction
The roots of i+o date back to the year 1958. Based on the principle "form and function in concert“ the consulting enterprise breaks away from previous concepts, in which production processes had to adapt to the given space conditions. As a pioneer in "Functional Industrial Planning" i+o takes new paths and "plans from the inside to the outside." Optimising the production and logistics processes forms the focal point in planning, the requirements for a building are derived from it. This novel planning expertise is to date unprecented and is not taught at any university.
The 1960's – Marked by the High Bay Warehouse
The first great breakthrough provides i+o in the middle of the 1960's with the standardisation of a loading equipment to a Euro-Pool-Pallet. This is what allows the pathfinder of modern material flow and storage technology to realise the first large-scale logistics projects. Henceforth i+o plans and organises the concept design for completely novel storage buildings, so-called high rack warehouses, for prestigious companies such as Beiersdorf, Boehringer Mannheim, and Merck. The system - nowadays used for automated large-scale warehouses - provides the company from Heidelberg, Germany, with a prestige reaching beyond the native region. For many years, the development of i+o remains closely linked to the theme of high rack warehouses.
The 1970's – New Main Pillar Pharmaceutical Projects and First Steps towards Internationalisation
The introduction of international standards for the production of pharmaceutical products – such as the guidelines "Good Manufacturing Practice“ (GMP) of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – triggers a wave of new building construction in the pharmaceutical industry. Expertise and knowhow result in numerous projects for i+o in Germany and other European countries. With the establishment of Pharma Consult GmbH the successful activities were given a fitting framework in 1972. Domestic and foreign orders from Schering AG in Berlin, Nattermann in Cologne, Rhône-Poulenc in Lyon, as well as POLFA in Warsaw follow.
The 1980's – Further Expansion of Knowhow:
The knowledge and knowhow in the field of factory planning is increasingly adapted to companies outside of the pharmaceutical industry. With an order from the tire manufacturer Semperit AG the successful transfer to the automobile industry is achieved; projects include DaimlerChrysler in Woerth, VDO Babenhausen, or VW in Emden. Newly developed process control computers for the planning and control of processes make their entry in the area of production and logistics. Therefore the company establishes i+o Informationssysteme GmbH – a step meant to advance i+o in the field of information technology.
The 1990's – Globalisation as Opportunity: New Segment Flight Catering
In view of globalisation and growing tourism, a worldwide trend towards modernisation and expansion of airports and a considerable enlargement of airline fleet emerges. Climbing air passenger numbers require a change in thinking and an optimisation of catering. This marks the beginning of the planning of highly complex "Flight Catering Facilities" for i+o. In addition to Sky Chefs in the USA, British Airways and Swiss Air are also sponsors. When the expansion of the Southeast Asian airports is in the offing, i+o is already known as a neutral, independent specialist planner for the catering industry, so that it also receives planning contracts from Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Hongkong, and China. Already in the preceding decades, i+o has achied a solid knowhow in this field by planning and implementing the most varied functional areas of hospital supply and waste disposal centers. To gain a better position in the progressing globalisation, i+o looks for a partner for foreign expanison in the early 1990ies. The choice is Suter + Suter AG from Switzerland and becomes solvent five years later. Finally, i+o integrates into the real estate division of Thyssen Immobilien GmbH. In 1996, i+o establishes the subsidiary i+o Asia Pte. Ltd. in Singapore with the objective to develop markets in South-East Asia.
2000 – Expertise of the Independent Consultant in Worldwide Demand
In 2001, i+o spins off from the Thyssen Group with a MBO.
Today, with its approximately 80 employees, the consulting and planning company is represented in large and complex investment projects on a worldwide basis. i+o develops strategies for optimising the entire added value process, or the supply chain; it helps to make existing systems more productive and organise them to lower the costs for its customers on a sustainable basis. Last but not least, investment schemes are managed optimally. This includes new production buildings and logistics centres, IT systems as well as buildings in the pharma, food, catering, and automotive industries including other discrete manufacturers. Today, i+o is market leader in a number of its segments such as in the development of Flight Catering Facilities; the list of successfully executed projects is as long as the list of references from prestigious top customer. In addition to Europe's largest fully automated high bay warehouse of the BLG for Tchibo in Bremen, and one of the largest Flight Catering Facilities in the world for Emirates Catering in Dubai, the factory for the pharmaceutical manufacturer AstraZeneca in Egypt, the new Production of Sin Hwa Dee Foodstuff Industries for sauces in Singapore, and the new Spare Parts Centre for the BMW Group in Dingolfing, represent important projects as reference.