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A factory in Vienna turns simple data into smart data The project EuProGigant has moved into gears and The Pilot Factory 4.0 of the Vienna University of Technology is one of its drivers.
Big data in production The amount of data grows while its usage is increasingly decentralised. There is still very little exchange in data between the various entities. But digital information comes mainly from the industrial sector as every machine and every sensor generate data. These huge amounts of data, that are often recorded in real-time, are called big data. However, we are not able to analyse and process them properly – yet. By processing this raw data and making it usable, we create smart data. This smart data can be used, for example, to make global supply chains with low stock-keeping more resilient. Smart systems can also detect problems within the digital eco-system and tackle them when they have access to smart data. The project partners show how this data exchange can take place: “We connect pilot factories in Austria and Germany within EuProGigant in order to show what resilient value-added chains can look like,” says Claudia Schickling, head of the Pilot Factory 4.0 of the Vienna University of Technology. “We also want to offer SMEs easy and practical access to the digital learning eco-system of EuPro-
Gigant so they can learn the rules of digital production eco-systems and strengthen their competitiveness.” In order to achieve this, the project partners are trying to convince as many users as possible to use the new infrastructure and to help develop it.
© Matthias Heschl
T
he Pilot Factory 4.0 of the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) is working on a European production giganet, the EuProGigant, turning big data into small data and making industrial production even smarter. The binational project was presented in late June in Vienna and Berlin. The project executing organisation, projects and Ministries from Austria and Germany underlined the significance of this project for the digital transformation. 16 project partners are cooperating at EuProGigant in order to develop a data infrastructure that makes Europe’s production and manufacturing sector stronger, more efficient, more resilient and more sustainable. They include small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporations, universities and research facilities.
Johannes Fröhlich, Vice-Dean for Research and Innovation at the Vienna University of Technology
