This worldwide unique, manufacturer-independent demonstrator and research platform enables testing, further development, and deployment of innovative ICT technologies in a realistic industrial production environment. The demonstrator-ecosystem will play an increasingly role as a test environment in the coming years for the European GAIA-X sub-project smartMA-X . The vision of Production Level 4 (PL4) is guiding the development of our Shared Production setup. Our 2019 analysis of the Industrie 4.0 concept resulted in PL4, which takes the latest technological developments into account along with the lessons learned in previous years.
We presented the world's first Production Level 4 – Demonstrator. It introduced certified interchangeable modules (Plug & Produce) and a Gaia-X connection.
Thanks to the initiative of Prof. Dr. Detlef Zühlke, the Technologie-Initiative SmartFactory KL e. V. is founded by 7 partners from research and industry on June 10, 2005. The partners elect Prof. Zühlke Chairman of the Board.
Founding partners: DFKI, BASF, KSB, Pepperl+Fuchs, ProMinent, Siemens, TU Kaiserslautern
Member of the Executive Board of Technologie-Initiative SmartFactory KL e.V. . (since 2022)
Chief Product Officer & Member of the Management at Empolis Information GmbH
Member of the Executive Board of Technologie-Initiative SmartFactory KL e.V. (since 2023)
Vice President
Global Head of Industrial and Energy Products bei TÜV SÜD