Smart Manufacturing Network

The central structure of the High Performance Center is manifested in the ”Smart Manufacturing Network”, an IT network that provides relevant machines, production systems, databases and simulation systems. The employee is connected to the process through mobile devices such as tablets or data glasses, which enable him to directly interact with and control all subsystems and access production data.

With the help of such decentral and modular systems, manufacturing processes and process chains can be planned, carried out, monitored and reconfigured more quickly and more cost-efficiently. The connectivity of production systems is supposed to generate adaptable systems that allow for an individualized production of various components in small quantities and at a virtually identical cost structure – from design to recycling.

The comprehensive technological understanding of the three Fraunhofer Insitutes, regarding the individual processes and process chains in the pilot lines, is the prerequisite for generating a nearly complete, virtual representation of the respective processing states along the manufacturing chain. This digital twin is stored within the Smart Manufacturing Network for every component and is thus available for all systems. The objective of the institutes is to transfer this detailed and technological process knowledge into concrete technological applications by means of suitable data architectures, big data tools and cloud services – in the sense of Industrie 4.0.