Autor: Alois Zoitl

The future of manufacturing industries in Europe is currently a topic for frequent discussions. Competitors from Far East dominate the international markets with low-price products. Outsourcing of manufacturing tasks from Europe to far-east countries is a common practice in the case of commodity products. Will the European economy be able to absorb the resulting losses also in the near future? Experts don’t think so. A study conducted by the Institute for Automation and Control, Vienna University of Technology and the Society for the Promotion and Modernisation of Production Technologies in Austria shows new perspectives with the concept of Adaptive Production

The manufacturing and production industry will only survive in a more and more globalized word if they react fast and flexible to new market and customer demands. In order to achieve the required flexibility, technically support for reconfiguration both on the machine (physical) and on the control technical (logical) level is necessary. From the technological point of view a shift from central control and rigidly coupled production systems to distributed, modular and cooperating automation components is essential. An important role of such proposed productions systems plays the automation and control concept.