- In 1954, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering establishes the Chair of Machinery and Factory Systems, which Professor Franz Otto Friedrich Schwerdtfeger heads until 1961.
- Dr.-Ing. Hans Kettner becomes Schwerdtfeger's successor in 1965 and founds the Institute for Factory Systems in 1966. He developed the four research areas of factory plant planning, factory plant operation, handling technology and plant technology - the foundations for the areas still relevant today.
- With the Institute's move to the new building in Callinstraße in 1973, the number of employees and the scope of the Institute's technical equipment increased significantly.
- Within the framework of factory operation, extensive investigations of the production throughput time in practice are started for the first time, which later lead to the Hanoverian funnel model, the load-oriented order release and the logistic characteristics.
- Professor Hans-Peter Wiendahl took over as director of the IFA in 1979.
- The funnel model is extended to the whole factory. In factory planning the concept of the versatile factory is developed and in handling technology the aerodynamic part arrangement and supply.
- The Institute for Factory Plants is renamed the Institute for Production Systems and Logistics in 2001.
- Since 2003, Professor Dr.-Ing. habil. Peter Nyhuis has headed the IFA. With his appointment, the department of industrial science (formerly the IADM department; Institute for Industrial Science and Didactics of Mechanical Engineering; Director: Prof. Manfred Schweres) is integrated into the IFA.
- In May 2004 the IFA, together with five other production technology institutes of the Leibniz University of Hanover, moves into the Hanover Production Technology Centre (PZH) in Garbsen.
