Digitalisierung

IoT-Platforms are a key element for interconnecting physical objects and providing data for digital twins which represent such objects. The market for IoT platforms has grown massively in recent years. With now more than 600 providers, selecting the “right” platform for a company is no longer an easy task. This article supports companies in the selection process by providing an overview on common functionalities of IoT platforms and criteria for evaluating IoT platforms.

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.

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 apparel industry, with demanding customers and an oversupply of products and shopping options, interactivity and individualization offer important opportunities for differentiation. However, digital business-to-consumer interactions have so far been limited to product configuration and viewing. This paper presents new, digitally supported approaches to integrate the customer into the collection development process of the apparel industry.

The introduction of digital technologies will provide completely new possibilities for the design and operation of supply chains in the future. A decisive step should be the decentralization of structures and processes inside firms which also shows effect on the cooperation between companies. It finally offers the opportunity to solve long-standing problems of supply chain management. When are companies ready to take this step? The technologies are.

The corona pandemic was an eye opener. Practically overnight, it has demonstrated how digitalization can transform almost every area of daily life. It has accelerated structural change towards a data economy. A data economy works according to its own rules. They differ fundamentally from the principles of a goods economy. Therefore, the new data economy requires a new data economics.

German industrial companies are suffering from an increasing shortage of skilled workers. In order to secure Germany’s existing competitive advantages, suitable solutions have to be carried out to counter this shortage. Technologies in the context of “Industry 4.0” offer promising solutions. Using this technologies, significant productivity improvements as well as higher resource utilization rates can be achieved. However, the main challenge is to identify the right technical solutions for the specific business challenges. In the following, a systematic approach is presented to face these challenges.