Project Planning
Design & procure the systemData and process analysis, material-flow design, layout and a functional tender that vendors answer on your terms rather than theirs.
- Material flow
- Layout
- Tender
- Vendor selection
Intralogistics & warehouse automation · Independent
Independent expertise across the warehouse-automation lifecycle.
Twenty-five years planning, delivering, running and scrutinising automated warehouses, from first layout to final acceptance, and the diligence before you buy. Vendor-independent, tested on the floor, not in the slide deck.
What I do
Four services across the lifecycle
One independent advisor from the first concept to the day the asset changes hands, engaged for a single phase or the whole path. Each stands on its own; together they cover the life of an automated warehouse.
Project Management
Deliver & commission itExecution, commissioning and ramp-up to full performance, and taking over the projects that have stalled, driving open items to final acceptance.
- Commissioning
- Ramp-up
- Acceptance
- Project rescue
Intralogistics Consulting
Run & improve itOperations optimisation, process design and the KPIs to prove the gains held, plus interim leadership for an operation that needs an owner.
- Optimisation
- KPIs
- Process design
- Interim
M&A Due Diligence
Scrutinise it before a dealIndependent technical due diligence on automated assets: the system, the software, operations and the commercial position, plus post-merger support.
- Technical DD
- Software
- Risk register
- PMI
Why me
I have sat on every side of this table
Most technical diligence in this sector is written by people who have read about these systems. Here is where my assessment comes from.
Vice President Food Retail
SSI SchäferRan the vendor side of the table globally, responsible for bookings above €100m a year and negotiating contracts at that scale.
I know how a throughput figure gets built into a proposal and which assumptions are quietly doing the work.
Integration and commissioning
SSI Schäfer · VanderlandeCommissioned and ramped up automated distribution centres in the US, Europe and Australia, including two systems that had never been built before.
Hired and led the resident maintenance teams. I have watched these systems fail at three in the morning.
Senior Director Software Solutions EMEA
KION GroupOwned the intralogistics software portfolio across EMEA: product strategy, development, rollout.
Ran technical due diligence on KION's own M&A candidates, up to and including the recommendation put in front of the board.
Independence
Independent of every vendor in the market
Twenty years of that experience was earned on the vendor side. That is exactly why the read is sharp, and exactly why the question of bias deserves a straight answer rather than silence.
No vendor relationships
No agency agreements, no reseller arrangements, no referral fees or commissions from any equipment supplier or software vendor. Nothing about my income depends on which system you end up with.
Not a system integrator
I do not design, supply or install the equipment I assess. There is no follow-on implementation contract waiting behind the report, so no incentive to find work rather than find facts.
Paid for the opinion, not the outcome
Fixed fee per phase or a daily rate, agreed before the work starts. No success fee tied to whether a deal completes, so "walk away" costs me nothing to write.
Conflicts declared before engagement
If I have worked with the target, the vendor or the incumbent integrator, you hear it before you appoint me, not in a footnote afterwards.
Evidence
Selected projects from 25 years in the field
M&A evaluation · Global intralogistics group · China
Finding and validating an acquisition target
The mandate. Identify the right partner for a global intralogistics group to invest in, to add AMR technology to its product portfolio.
The work. Market analysis of the AMR landscape. A shortlist built against defined partner criteria. Management interviews, site visits and hands-on evaluation of the products and the underlying technology. Negotiation of the cooperation agreement.
The outcome. Recommendation prepared and presented to the board. The group invested in the recommended partner.
The same method a fund needs on a target: screen the market, build the criteria, then go and look at the machines.
- Context
- Portfolio gap in autonomous mobile robots
- My role
- Led the evaluation end to end, through to board recommendation
- Technology
- Autonomous mobile robots including fleet controller software
- Outcome
- Investment in the recommended partner completed
Project rescue · Deep-freeze producer · Belgium
Three months from stalled to accepted, with no penalties
The situation. A deep-freeze installation that had not reached final acceptance. Open items on both the software and the mechanical side, with a project that could not be closed.
The work. Took over project responsibility, then worked directly alongside the software team and the mechanical team to drive every remaining open point to closure.
The outcome. All open items closed within three months. Final acceptance achieved and the project closed with no penalties.
This is exactly the condition a technical due diligence exists to find, before you own it.
- Asset
- Automated deep-freeze channel storage, Belgium
- Technology
- High-bay channel storage, pallet conveying system, WCS
- My role
- Took over project responsibility from the incumbent project manager
- Outcome
- Final acceptance achieved, project closed without penalties
The first fully automated case-picking installation of its kind
Managed commissioning and ramp-up of the entire system and solved the problems that come with unproven technology. Hired and led the 16-strong resident IT, PLC and mechatronics team and ran a structured lessons-learned process back into the equipment and software.
Technology: Automated multi-level shuttle, delayering robots, case wheelers, case stacking robots, WCS, pack-pattern generator.
Outcome: Ramped to full performance. Final acceptance on schedule and on budget.
The first 3D-Matrix SCP system of its kind
Owned the sales and design process, contract negotiation and overall project management with P&L responsibility, then carried the new technology's teething problems through to a clean handover.
Technology: Automated multi-level shuttle, delayering robots, case stacking robots, WCS, pack-pattern generator.
Outcome: Successful sales process and installation management, handed to the commissioning team on time.
Two fully automated distribution centres serving 800 stores
Managed commissioning and ramp-up of both systems across two sites in the United States and built the resident maintenance organisation of 70 FTE across IT, PLC and mechatronics.
Technology: Automated high-bay warehouse, automated receiving with decant and tilt-tray sorter, miniload with zone picking, GTP picking with carousel storage, automatic tote stacking, WCS.
Outcome: Ramped to full performance and beyond. Final acceptance on schedule and on budget, followed by two years of profitable after-sales operation.
Performance improvement across a live multi-area warehouse
Analysed the operation for process and storage efficiency and reworked the interaction between the equipment supplier's WMS and the customer's ERP system.
Technology: Automated high-bay warehouse, miniload, GTP picking with carousel systems, hanging sorter, WMS and WCS.
Outcome: More than ten actions identified to improve product flow and reduce labour costs, then implemented under my oversight and tracked against purpose-built KPIs.
Deep-freeze SCP installation in Scandinavia
Owned the sales and design process for the system, negotiated the contract and handed the project over to the delivery team.
Technology: Automated shuttle storage, delayering robots, case stacking robots, WCS, pack-pattern generator.
Outcome: Successful sales process and contract negotiation, clean handover to delivery.
Multi-area automated warehouse, building included
Owned the sales and design process for the whole facility including the building itself, negotiated the contract and handed over to the delivery team.
Technology: Building, automated high-bay warehouse, shuttle system, pallet conveyor, multi-zone picking, AGVs, WCS.
Outcome: Successful sales process and contract negotiation, clean handover to delivery.
Track record
Where the assessment comes from
25
years in intralogistics and warehouse operations
€100m+
annual order intake carried as VP Sales
2
first-of-a-kind systems commissioned
70
FTE in the largest resident team built and led
Sectors
- Drugstore chains
- Grocery wholesale
- Grocery retail
- Multichannel retail
- Deep-freeze logistics
- Intralogistics groups
Geographies
- Germany
- United Kingdom
- Belgium
- Norway
- United States
- Australia
- China
- Thailand
Product
LogIQ VDA5050 Analyzer
Bringing the VDA5050 community together: developing, testing and monitoring in one platform. Fleet-controller vendors, vehicle manufacturers and fleet operators work on the same traffic, with the same checks and the same evidence, independent, on your own hardware.
Profile
Matthias Merz
Matthias Merz Dipl.-Inform. (FH) · Founder, LogistiXpert
- Based
- Thailand – supporting projects worldwide
- Languages
- German (native), English (fluent, negotiation level)
- Education
- Diplom-Informatiker (FH), THM Giessen, 2000
- 2025 – Founder and Principal LogistiXpert – intralogistics consulting, interim management, M&A advisory
- 2018 – 2024 Senior Director Software Solutions EMEA KION Group AG / Linde Material Handling GmbH, Aschaffenburg
- 2016 – 2018 Vice President Food Retail SSI Schäfer Automation GmbH, Giebelstadt – global
- 2015 – 2016 Director Business Consultancy SSI Schäfer Noell GmbH, Giebelstadt
- 2015 Integration Manager Vanderlande Industries GmbH, Mönchengladbach
- 2012 – 2014 Director Integration Management SSI Schäfer Noell GmbH, Giebelstadt – global
- 2006 – 2012 Site Manager / Manager Logistics Operations SSI Schaefer Systems International, USA
- 2001 – 2006 Head of Software Development mbi GmbH, Hüttenberg, Germany
- 2000 – 2001 Systems Analyst Lilly Deutschland GmbH, Bad Homburg
Contact
Let's get into the detail.
Happy to walk through a live situation under NDA or to run a short red-flag read on something already on your desk.
Confidentiality is a given. A mutual NDA can be in place before the first
substantive conversation.