Smart Manufacturing
Smart manufacturing refers to fully integrated and collaborative manufacturing systems that respond in real-time to meet the changing demands and conditions in the factory, supply chain, and customers’ needs. Digital technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), sensors, cloud computing, and big data analytics have tremendously influenced the production systems of manufacturing firms over the last years and continue to do so as part of the ongoing fourth industrial revolution. Production sites with digitally enhanced machines and assets (smart products) become connected and automated, and they generate and exchange data through the IoT. The actors in the wider supply chain can use this data to fine tune the management of the supply chain and to offer novel data-driven service that complement existing products, transforming supply chains into service ecosystems. Finally, the digital transformation in manufacturing leads to completely new ways of providing customer value with customized and outcome-based solutions instead of traditional product sales.
The cluster Smart Manufacturing is headed by
Alessio Maria Braccini is a Professor of Business Organization and Information Systems at the Department of Economics and Entrepreneurship (Dipartimento di Economia e Impresa - DEIm), University of Tuscia, Viterbo (Italy). His research interests concern the study of the impacts of ICT at the individual, team, and organizational level.
Jens Pöppelbuß is Professor of Industrial Sales and Service Engineering at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. His research interests focus on service and innovation management topics in business-to-business settings. He combines technical and business issues in the context of an increasing digitization, networking, customer orientation and tertiarization of industrial value creation.