Industrie 4.0

The Industrial Data Space enables business based on networked data and data sovereignty at the same time. The technological solution and the certification scheme of the Industrial Data Space ensures secure access to data which companies usually do not dare to share today. This gives new opportunities and provides new data-driven business models. The Industrial Data Space® initiative consists of a research project owned by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the Industrial Date Space Association.

Predictive, or condition-based, maintenance is a shining goal for industrial customers and the Industrie 4.0 initiative. Supplementing, or even replacing, inefficient schedule-based maintenance with software promises to reduce equipment failures and unplanned downtime, improve safety and ultimately help the bottom line in an era of unstable prices and uncertain budgets. Predictive maintenance might be taking longer than expected, but in the next five years you might see it move faster than expected.

Currently the implementation of digital technologies in response to important competition requirements is promoted in many places. Consequently, the working environment of employees in operative logistics is going to change significantly. This article provides an overview of the possible uses of future-oriented technologies in different logistics processes as well as the thereby changing subtasks and competence requirements of operative employees in the working world 4.0.

Industry 4.0 requires many efforts in terms of standardization. So far, small and medium-sized enterprises have scarcely been regarded in this context. This study presents empirical results from 225 SMEs regarding three contexts of standardization, inside the enterprise, interfaces with other enterprises and outside the enterprise. Differentiated for ten industry sectors, distinct characteristics and strategies for standardization regarding each industry sector are derived.

Considering the background of the Energiewende challenges like energy efficiency and flexibility become more important for the industrial production. A smart building automation system is able to decrease energy costs and improve the performance of supply systems. Model-based predictive control (MPC) is a suitable approach to optimize complex energetic systems as presented in the ETA model factory at Technical University of Darmstadt.

This article deals with the presentation of a concept that shows new possibilities for a holistic improvement in the company’s internal resource efficiency by using Industry 4.0. Subsequently, the structure of a resource management system will be shown. To attain a holistic improvement of the resource efficiency, the viewing frame will be extended to the whole product lifecycle to show which potentials a coupling along the entire value-added chain provides.

Due to a lack of energy consumption transparency, manufacturing companies are struggling to identify the energetic cost drivers within a factory. Energy transparency can be reached through the aid of suitable measuring technologies. However, the gained transparency must be used intelligently to obtain economic benefits. One possible solution is the use of modern information technologies that are provided by the Industry 4.0. Maximum synergies can only be achieved through a holistic implementation of Industry 4.0, by taking the business model, the operational processes, the technology and the employees into account. A corresponding strategy for the implementation of Industry 4.0 in the context of energy transparency is introduced in this article.

In the context of Industry 4.0 the change and digitalisation of technical information move more closely in the focus of research. During the whole life cycle of a product, relevant information arises, that has to be stored appropriately. Future industrial applications require adaptive information management, e.g., individual and appropriate delivery of data, connection of information, target-oriented search or visualisation of information. The focus of this contribution is on challenges of the digitalization of technical documentations with respect to Industry 4.0 paradigms. The handling of the technical documentation over the complete lifecycle of a product is discussed.

Digitization opens extensive opportunities to gather real time information, exchange them and use them for a variety of different purposes. In industry, the related developments are referred to as the transition to Industry 4.0. They relate to the workplace design as well as to the alignment of business strategies and the underlying business models.

The developed Readiness Model supports enterprises to determine the current state in relation to Industry 4.0 as well as the target state. Based on strategy improvement measures are derived to succeed in attaining the target Industry 4.0 state. Enterprises profit by individualized understanding of Industry 4.0 and specific project proposals. The dissemination of Industry 4.0 is supported through this Readiness Model. In addition a benchmark data base is filled to enable comparisons of enterprises and to observe the historical development of the industry 4.0 readiness of several industries.