YARDED: Logistics management via app

There is currently a deficit in the armed forces when it comes to software-supported coordination of material. Three Bundeswehr intrapreneurs, including Hauptmann Anna Thumer, therefore developed an innovative solution together with the Bundeswehr Cyber Innovation Hub, which was recently awarded a prize by NATO. YARDED has now been successfully tested in the field with the 163 RSOM logistics battalion.

In order to ensure modern national and alliance defense, large NATO units must be able to be deployed across national borders as quickly as possible in an emergency. The Bundeswehr's logistics play a key role in this process. Germany would be a major military hub in a war. The Bundeswehr's logistics must ensure that vehicles and war material arrive where they are needed. In order to simplify and digitalize the underlying military procedures, the Bundeswehr intrapreneurs from Logistics Battalion 163 RSOM have developed market-ready software together with the Bundeswehr Cyber Innovation Hub.

The result is the YARDED system, which enables officers to efficiently plan and actively control material and vehicle flows in the marshalling area. This enables Germany to fulfill its tasks within NATO more efficiently and agilely. In the event of war, soldiers like Lieutenant Commander Eric L. would have to transfer 500 vehicles and more than 2,500 tons of material to NATO's RSOM process every day. The abbreviation stands for "Reception Staging and Onward Movement". A process that was still carried out in the Bundeswehr with paper and pencil for a long time - a state of affairs that the Bundeswehr's intrapreneurs consider outdated. "The administration of logistical processes always slowed me down before. With YARDED, we now have software in our hands that allows us to process and handle more data, more material and more vehicles," explains Kapitänleutnant  Eric L.

The planning and coordination of material and vehicle flows in the RSOM process involves an enormous organizational effort. YARDED digitizes and automates the RSOM process in the planning, operation and post-operation phases. This saves time, creates transparency and guarantees more effective and flexible pre-planning and rescheduling of vehicle and material flows in a marshalling area, for example in the event of position changes. The system also makes intelligent recommendations and thus serves as a decision-making aid. This ensures that vital and combat-critical material arrives in the area of operations on time. The NATO tool LOGFAS continues to provide the data basis for the RSOM process. In addition to being used as a planning tool, Yarded can also be used as a data-based situational picture and can be used on laptops and mobile devices alike. The project is also of interest to all NATO partners who face the same challenges as the Bundeswehr. The software is currently being tested with the troops.

In the end, the Bundeswehr intrapreneurs were also satisfied with their field test: "We are currently very happy with the planning results from the exercise," explains Hauptmann Oskar H. on behalf of the planning team. The data showed a clear advantage of YARDED: "Our planning is faster, more precise, much easier to understand and clearer to visualize. The software standardizes processes." Sven Weizenegger, Head of the Bundeswehr's Cyber Innovation Hub, is also impressed by the results of the exercise in Delmenhorst: "Today's success shows that innovation is no coincidence: Innovation is no coincidence, innovation is hard work. Our aim is now to test YARDED in the wider NATO context and to scale it up across the Alliance as quickly as possible. This is our active contribution to national and alliance defense." The success also shows how well the CIHBw masters innovation processes and the pace of innovation that the Bundeswehr is already capable of today. Weizenegger: "Our CIHBw innovation project YARDED is a living turning point. As a hub, we now want to take the energy from the exercise with us to drive the software forward as a focus together with the Bundeswehr's armed forces base."