Opportunity for Europe VDMA has launched Manufacturing-X Forum

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With the establishment of the VDMA Forum "Manufacturing-X", the association is now bundling and coordinating all activities on this topic towards its member companies and stakeholders ...

The declared goal of the founding of the Forum Manufacturing-X is to take into account the increasing importance of data spaces as an important basis for new digital business models. With the forum, the association initially wants to build on what was successfully worked out in the last decade through the VDMA Forum "Industry 4.0". The aim is to further spread the topic and move it forward, as it is said. "We've been talking about Industry 4.0 for over ten years! Now it's time to take the next step and elevate the topic to a new level," emphasizes Hartmut Rauen, Deputy Managing Director of VDMA, on this step. With the emerging data spaces, new opportunities are opening up for companies to develop business models and monetize their own data. Rauen appeals: "There is a huge potential here. Therefore, we must understand the establishment of a data ecosystem, which enables trusted data exchange between companies based on open standards, as a unique opportunity for Europe."

Part of the digital strategy of the German federal government.

Manufacturing-X was initiated under the umbrella of Platform Industry 4.0, a network of companies, associations, and research institutions, according to VDMA. It is part of the federal government's digital strategy. The new initiative is intended to improve the competitiveness, sustainability, and sovereignty of European industry. VDMA sees itself as an active partner in the Factory-X project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. This, in turn, is described as a flagship project to significantly shape the Manufacturing-X data space. The new forum is operationally led by Dr.-Ing. Marc Hüske. The management is headed by Dr.-Ing. Reinhard Heister, who has already led the "Industry 4.0" forum in the last three years. The main tasks include representing the interests of association members with regard to Manufacturing-X, orchestrating all activities into an overall picture, creating interfaces to relevant initiatives, projects, and organizations outside VDMA, informing about ongoing activities related to the topic, as well as knowledge transfer and networking. The technical concept behind it should also be made understandable.