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To be able to use artificial intelligence, a company does not necessarily need a qualified specialist. The Fraunhofer study “Cloud-based AI Platforms - Opportunities and Limits of Services for Machine Learning as a Service” shows how small and medium-sized companies can proceed instead. This article summarizes the arguments and results of the study, citations from it are therefore not marked accordingly.

Intense global competition, shorter product life cycles and an increasing number of variants require flexible and adaptable, but at the same time economical production and logistics systems. This requires constant replanning of factories and logistics systems. Value-adding processes are being outsourced to contract logistics providers. Contract logistics planners must respond to tenders as quickly as possible and develop a proposal with an initial planning concept and a cost estimation. Despite standardization efforts in planning, the knowledge is often only implicit at the planners. This article describes the need for support by an AI-based assistance system during the planning process and how a digital platform for such an assistance system should look like.

Right now, there’s virtually no single issue impacting the mechanical and plant engineering sector as profoundly as that of the “smart factory.” In fact, according to an industry survey conducted in 2019 [1], as many as 68 percent of the respondents reported that they had already launched initial smart factory initiatives. According to the Capgemini study “Smart Factories @ Scale” [2], by the end of 2019, a third of the factories had already been transformed into intelligent factories. This article presents insight into how leveraging the advantages of a cloud-based solution can ensure that the flow of information within a network of smart factories can be managed effectively.

Interior such as armrests consist of different materials. The materials and manufacturing processes are limited regarding custom-made cushioning and geometry. Air conditioning and illumination through the layers is difficult. With 3D printing a shell can be combined with a flexible supporting structure providing comfort and conduits for air or wires. This article discusses a printed removable armrest with integrated air conditioning and illumination.

The challenges facing production in the 21st century are multifaceted and complex. In particular, the consequences of global warming have fundamentally changed the conditions for modern production. In dealing with these challenges, the circular economy is seen as having great potential. This article develops a strategy for the successful implementation and realization of the circular economy for a climate-friendly production. For this purpose, a holistic circular product lifecycle is developed, along which circular strategies are systematically identified. The concept is illustrated by a practical example of a smartphone manufacturer.

China’s economic and demographic change forces the country to take action in its health care system. AI, Big Data and Robotics play a vital role in bringing the quality of health care to a new level and the country to the politically desired world leadership in key technologies. The abundance of data, limited privacy laws, vast amounts of venture capital and strategic partnerships between AI-industry and the government have fueled the fast AI-development in China to which Germany and Europe have yet to find an answer.

In the last few years, quantum computing has achieved new successes, such as Google’s quantum supremacy experiment [1], and has been showing adoption by large industrial firms to tackle complex problems. But what has led up to these developments? What kinds of problems can we expect to be able to solve in the near term with quantum computing? What are the challenges that we encounter with this technology and deploying within industrial settings?

The increasing awareness of energy-neutral production generates the desire for methods for the energetic evaluation and optimization of process chains. In this context, it is not sufficient to consider only the electrical energy demand along the process chain. Within the scope of this work, a procedure for the holistic energetic evaluation and optimization of process chains in machining was developed, which takes into account cross-material flow interactions by adjusting the process parameters.

To ensure competitiveness, it is essential for manufacturing companies to continuously develop innovative products, processes and business models. However, these companies face the challenges of a dynamic and complex business environment. In addition, the relevance of digitalization and sustainability for the manufacturing industry is continuously increasing. This paper describes the newly developed “Sustainable Innovation” approach with relevant fields of action and principles of innovation management, which enables companies to create sustainable value.

Companies sometimes miss opportunities to pursue long-term people-related targets despite short-term performance targets. There is a lack of a measurable variable that shows possibilities for the pursuit of person-related targets. This paper will therefore present an approach based on a simulation-based robustness analysis that makes it possible to integrate long-term targets into production planning. By identifying critical workplaces and determining the tolerable change in the planned personnel deployment, possibilities are shown for pursuing long-term people-related targets.