SmartFactory-KL featured at Hannover Messe Press Preview
- Kick-off event for national and international press
- SmartFactoryKL presents circular economy module
The Press Preview traditionally takes place two months in advance of the world’s largest industrial trade fair in Hannover, Germany. SmartFactory Kaiserslautern (SF-KL) plans to demonstrate its newest production cell_SKYE at this year’s fair. The module combines artificial intelligence, data spaces, and administrative shells to provide a great example of the circular economy of the future. SF-KL is a perfect match for the current motto of the Hannover Messe: “Energizing Sustainable Industry”.
Preparing the future today
At Hannover Messe 2024, SmartFactoryKL will present what production could look like in the future. The production cell_SKYE is part of the Kaiserslautern Shared Production system, which uses a model truck, as an example product, to show product manufacturing at various locations using data rooms. Central to this concept is the asset administrative shell (AAS). Specifically, the administrative shell stores information about the product’s carbon footprint (PCF) and the entire product life cycle, as well as associated resources and production skills. “The exciting thing about our demonstrator ecosystem is that software and AI operations find advanced application on the shop floor,” said Simon Jungbluth, SF-KL researcher and project leader of smartMA-X. “Viewed from the outside many things may look familiar, but what is hidden from view is revolutionary.” This is why SF-KL decided to present a LIVE demonstration of how the AAS works in production at the Hannover Messe.
Bringing the administrative shell to life in the circular economy.
“To demonstrate how the circular economy can work in practice is very important,” said Teresa Petzsche, co-developer of the production cell_SKYE for “Green-AI Hub Mittelstand” (an initiative of the German government). “Now that we have _SKYE, we can show how components are checked and evaluated with AI, and, if fitted with a product passport in the form of an AAS, how they find their way back into the production cycle.” When the truck components pass inspection they are placed in temporary storage and made available via the AAS as an option for reinstallation when a new truck order is entered.
CO2-reduction and transparent supply chains – A start-up shows how
A lot of money can be saved by recycling used components and, thereby, also avoiding new CO2 emissions. “This is exactly where we come in because in the production and supply chains of the future, the production of CO2 will come with a price tag,” explains Alexander David from the start-up Greenable, which supplies the software solution that calculates the PCF of the model trucks for SF-KL. “The future demands a more holistic thought process. It becomes interesting when markets make companies pay for their CO2 emissions, for example, when considering whether to buy less expensive steel supplied by China. In reality, the emissions generated from transportation and production are significantly higher than for “green” steel from Europe. Companies can and must make strategic purchasing decisions based on the relative CO2 footprints. This may even increase the incentive to produce and purchase materials in Europe,” said Simon Jungbluth.
In the spirit of Manufacturing-X
The SF-KL vision of Production Level 4 includes many of the goals of the Manufacturing-X initiative. That is why SmartFactoryKL gives its full support to the initiative, for example, at the Manufacturing-X Convention held in Würzburg, Germany.
(Link to film: Youtube)
Contacts at the Press Preview
Teresa Petzsche, Alexander David, and Simon Jungbluth will attend the Press Preview.
Alexander David can be contacted at +49 173 913 7573 or alexander.david@greenable.tech.
Teresa Petzsche and Simon Jungbluth can be contacted through the SF-KL Press Officer, Dr. Ingo Herbst: Phone +49 151 129 83 288 or ingo.herbst@smartfactory.de.
