FG Automatisierungstechnik
Digitalization and automation represent both a major challenge and a long-term opportunity for SMEs to secure their business success. They often lack specialist knowledge and a sufficient financial scope and therefore need external support in meeting these challenges. This is of particular relevance and political interest as Brandenburgs economy is determined by SMEs. Knowledge and technology transfer between scientific institutions and companies is seen as a possible solution. However, different goals, approaches and expectations of researchers and companies inhibits or complicates a successful cooperation. Therefore, transfer intermediaries are needed as mediators.The book chapter uses the example of IMI Brandenburg to show how knowledge and technology transfer can be implemented by intermediaries and what key findings were obtained in the process. Furthermore, possible success factors for both the digitization of Brandenburg's SMEs and successful knowledge and technology transfer are discussed.The chapter addresses decision-makers in SMEs as well as research institutions and transfer intermediaries and is intended to raise awareness of the opportunities, challenges and solutions in the cooperation between science and industry.
Digital Business Model Innovation in SMEs - Case Studies with DIH Support from Brandenburg (Germany)
(2020)
The Digital Twin is seen as the step towards digitalization in many areas, including the area of manufacturing which is the focus of this paper. However, the frequently application-oriented development of concepts and initial implementations make it difficult to adapt them to other applications. Especially when production deviates from the usual highly automated processes and requires high flexibility, e.g. to allow batch size one. In such a case, the Digital Twin must support modular shopfloors with flexible areas in which different production times and various tools and machines are used. It should also be possible to react promptly to problems in production. Design errors that only become apparent during production must be reported directly. In order to deal with this problem, the paper presents a concept for an abstract representation of a Digital Shadow (DS). The DS combines the disciplines of production planning and control, product lifecycle and layout planning which creates new links and enables further application scenarios. Based on this Digital Shadow, different applications can be realized that provide user-related solutions. For this purpose, a tree structure is used that links information about the product and the production environment which in this case is variable.