Data Management, Networking and Analysis

R&D solutions 2024 / 2025

Data – an invaluable goldmine

Industry is convinced: Working securely and efficiently with data will be crucial for companies to succeed. Data-driven solutions make processes more efficient and generate new business models. Our experts develop strategies and solutions for working with this valuable raw material.

Everyone seems to be talking about data. It already forms the foundation of many industrial processes – and its importance will only continue to increase. The efficient management of customer and product data determines how successfully orders can be fulfilled or how well products can be developed across product generations. Machine tools, previously closed technical systems, are equipped with sensors that monitor ongoing processes and machine status. When data is networked, intelligently analyzed and integrated into higher-level systems, it provides the basis for comprehensive management of industrial processes from product development to shop floor and sales. When it is made accessible even beyond company boundaries, data enables a truly circular economy: If the components and materials contained in a product are made transparent to a dismantling business, then decisions about recycling or refurbishment can be more informed – and raw materials or entire products can be kept in use for longer. 

R&D projects at Fraunhofer IPK deal with all of these approaches. Product data management across the entire life cycle is just as much a part of this as the development of digital twins. These virtual representations of products, processes and systems mirror their structure and behavior and introduce unprecedented levels of transparency into industrial processes. Data-based solutions also help to overcome communication barriers between domains within a company and to integrate processes across entire businesses.

R & D highlights on data management, networking and analysis

Our selected activities in data handling and applications demonstrate the crucial role that data plays in production: in product data management across the entire life cycle, digital twins, E2E digitization or application areas such as the optical identification of objects and networked production.

 

From Cradle to Grave

The relevance of product data has increased massively: Products are now being monitored from engineering through use to remanufacturing or recycling. 

 

Digital Twins at a Glance

We present the different types and levels of digital twins on this page and give examples of research questions that we are working on at Fraunhofer IPK.

 

Digital Throughout

The software industry led the way: Development, planning, introduction and manufacturing of products are considered and managed together from end to end (E2E).

 

Data in Dialogue

Manuel Bösing, digital production specialist, and Paul Koch, expert in automation, discuss how the most important corporate resource can be used.

Other activities and R&D projects in the area of data management, networking and analysis

AI-Supported Optical Inspection

Efficient and resource-saving quality assurance

5G Remote Control

Operating production systems worldwide from your office

Continuous Improvement

Integrated data, smart teams