Digitization in production: how data contributes sustainably to corporate success

More efficient production processes and process chains, new business models with digital services, and powerful supplier and customer management along the entire value chain – this is the promise of digitization in the context of Industry 4.0.

For about ten years now, the networking of machines, the use of new algorithms for plant control, and the use of data for predictive maintenance have been gaining momentum: Companies with high requirements for consistent product quality have thus been able to expand their competitiveness and resilience in the face of global crises and hold their own well in worldwide markets.

At Fraunhofer IPT, we support manufacturing companies in developing their individual digitization strategies, identifying profitable applications and taking the first steps towards digital transformation with efficient resource planning. We know the best practices of different industries and product areas, the technologies behind them, and the IT solutions that need to be provided for networked, adaptive production. In addition, we deal intensively with the cybersecurity concerns of production facilities – an area of work that is becoming increasingly important, especially in today's world.

Industry meets IT: fields of application for digital technologies in production

Increasingly powerful sensor technology in manufacturing processes and products provide enormous amounts of data that can be used as decision-making aids. This can be used to improve the performance of process chains, to document safety-relevant pro-cessing steps, to predict wear and maintenance intervals more precisely than before, or to learn more about usage behavior and customer needs. We have expertise and the right tools for all these application areas, so that your production becomes more flexible, crisis-proof and sustainable.

Artificial intelligence in production

AI helps to filter out information from extensive production data and in this way to reach the right conclusions more quickly.

 

Big Data – overview in diversity

A lot helps a lot – but only those who ask the right questions will arrive at productive answers. We support you in maintaining an overview in the data space.

 

Digital Twin

Component development in numerous iterative steps is often costly. The Digital Twin offers the chance to get the first part right out of the machine.

5G in production

Fast data transmission with short latencies – 5G mobile technology is ideally suited for networking sensors and control technology in an adaptive plant system.

Networking and control

We provide the appropriate software and hardware platforms and modules for plant networking on the store floor.

IT security in production

Networked machines and systems are susceptible to a wide range of attack scenarios and malware. With our expertise, we help ensure that you can produce safely.

Fit for Industry 4.0

Digitization in the company is not an end in itself, but follows clear strategic goals. We enable companies to develop their individual digitization strategies and implement them in a targeted manner.

Industry 4.0 – from vision to product

In recent years, we have already developed concrete applications for digitized produc-tion. Safety-critical, individualized and high-precision products offer challenging tasks that we are working on and continuing to work on together with partners from industry. Here are three examples from our research and development for sophisticated compo-nents and system applications.

 

Digitized manufacturing of turbomachinery components

With the help of the Digital Twin, we manufacture costly, safety-critical components for the aerospace industry.

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.ipt.fraunhofer.de/de/branchen/luftfahrt/digitalisierung-in-der-turbomaschinenfertigung.html

Digitization in toolmaking

The medium-sized industry often produces complex one-offs and small series. Digitization accelerates these processes and helps to better understand customer needs.

 

Networked production systems for optics manufacturing

Process chains in optics production benefit from end-to-end data infrastructure and intelligent automation.