Efficient integration of logistics and process control stands as a pivotal element for the economic viability and sustainability of future end-to-end factories. The vertical and horizontal networking of machines, as mandated by Industry 4.0, presents new opportunities for enhancing production control. Within the logistics chain, interlinking holds the potential to enable a fully automated flow of materials, thus increasing production adaptability and efficiency. 

This paper proposes a novel approach to realizing a smart goods inward station by integrating a cost-efficient control logic paired with a material-flow-optimized handling of small load carriers. The developed innovative station overcomes sequential first-in-first-out delivery processes by modifying the material flow and parallelizing unload processes. This enables a flexible removal of small load carriers from a dynamic queue, which avoids supply bottlenecks and redundant buffers for optimization the just-in-time supply chain by reducing non-productive times. By the addition of automated guided vehicles, unloading and delivery processes can be automated. A comparison with conventional first-in-first-out systems shows that the modernized system increases the pick-up rate through parallel removal options and automated processes, which ultimately throughput times. 

Furthermore, the station is equipped with sensors and a control logic, which are connected to a logistics system by leveraging cost-efficient microcontrollers as modular components. Through these components, it becomes feasible to extend existing logistics chains into Industry 4.0-compliant processes. To illustrate the effectiveness of this approach, the paper demonstrates the integration of a target-actual comparison within the goods inwards station. By using a microcontroller-based camera system, the content of incoming carriers is inspected automatically. Radio-frequency identification tags on the carriers contain target data about components related to manufacturing orders. The target and actual component data are compared via a higher-level control unit, making it possible to ensure the completeness and end-to-end tracking of the delivered goods.