October 5, 2021

On Monday September 20^th 2021 Dr. Erwin Rauch presented the SME 4.0 project during a project meeting in Romania in the Erasmus+ project “ICARUS - An Innovative Higher Education Institution Training Toolbox to EffeCtively AddRess the EUropean InduStry 4.0 Skills Gap and Mismatches”. The project ETAT aims to establish teaching laboratories for Automation 4.0 in six Thai universities around Bangkok and to organize training events and material for teacher and students in Thailand. The project SME 4.0 is analyzing requirements and solutions for introducing Industry 4.0 in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The discussion brought lot of ideas for synergies between the projects and a joint dissemination event will be planned in Bolzano for 2022.

August 8, 2021

Dr. Poti Chaopaisarn (Chiang Mai University – Thailand) was invited to give a panel speech at the 4^th European Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management hosted by the Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering of Sapienza, University of Rome on 4^th of August, 2021. The topic that was presented was “Requirement Analysis for SMART Supply Chain Management for SMEs” by Poti Chaopaisarn and Manuel Woschank. The presented topic was ongoing research in operationalizing the conceptual model of SMART Supply Chain into measurable items used for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Key benefits of the conceptual model have been highlighted which offers new opportunities for SMEs to compete in the global market.

June 7, 2021

Technical University of Kosice organized an Online Workshop to transfer the most significant research findings regarding the potential usage of technologies and technological concepts in Smart Manufacturing, Smart Logistics, and Smart Organization Models to the local SMEs. The workshop was held on May 20, 2021. The workshop was divided into two main parts. The first part of the workshop was oriented on a brief description of the project and description of developed/applied tools of Industry 4.0 within the mentioned project. Second part of the workshop was interactive, where the participants were asked to assess the potential as well as the effort of every technology/concept. Moreover, the participants had the opportunity to rank the most important implementation barriers of Industry 4.0 in SMEs. The workshop has been prepared and organized by Prof. Modrak and Dr. Soltysova in collaboration with colleagues from Free University of Bolzano and Montanuniversitaet Leoben.

May 17, 2021

On May 14, 2021, the Montanuniversitaet Leoben conducted an Online Workshop to transfer the most significant research findings regarding the potential usage of technologies and technological concepts in Smart Manufacturing, Smart Logistics, and Smart Organization Models to the local SMEs. During the interactive workshop, the participants were asked to assess the potential as well as the effort of every technology/concept. Moreover, the participants had the opportunity to rank the most important implementation barriers of Industry 4.0 in SMEs. The workshop has been prepared and organized by Prof. Zsifkovits, Dr. Woschank, DI Kaiblinger, DI  Miklautsch, and DI Raith in collaboration with colleagues from Free University of Bolzano and Technical University of Kosice.

To view the recording of the workshop (German language) feel free to visit https://industrielogistik.unileoben.ac.at/forschung-projekte/projekte/sme-40#ergebnisworkshop

May 11, 2021

We are glad to present the recently published book "Implementing Industry 4.0 in SMEs: Concepts, Examples and Applications".

https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030705152

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-030-70516-9

In this second book of our SME4.0 project (https://www.sme40.eu/), we present key results of our research, which will not only be helpful for practitioners in SMEs but should also encourage other researchers to conduct further research in this area.

May 5, 2021

On April 30, 2021 the Free University of Bolzano organized an Online Workshop for SMEs to transfer some of the results of the project in form of a toolbox of the most potential technologies and concepts in Manufacturing, Logistics and Smart Organization. During the interactive workshop the participants had the possibility to assess the potential as well as the effort for each single technology/concept. Further the participants assessed also interactively the most important implementation barriers of Industry 4.0 in SMEs where a missing qualification of employees resulted to be the main barrier. The workshop has been prepared and organized by Prof. Dominik Matt, Dr. Erwin Rauch and Dr. Patrick Dallasega in collaboration with colleagues from Montanuniversität Leoben and Technical University of Kosice.

March 10, 2021

Dr. Erwin Rauch (Free University of Bolzano – Bozen) and Dr. Manuel Woschank were invited to give a Panel Speech at the Global Engineering Education Panel of the 11^th Annual Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IEOM) in Singapore. Thereby, the following topics were presented:

1) Rauch: The role of learning factory labs for teaching Industry 4.0

2) Woschank: The Systematic Realignment of Teaching and Learning Processes in Industrial Engineering Education

March 10, 2021

In the course of the SME4.0 projects researchers from the Montanuniversitaet Leoben and the Free University of Bolzano – Bozen submitted the following papers for the 11^th Annual Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IEOM) in Singapore:

1) Kompatscher, Pacher, Woschank: The LogiLegoLab: A Problem-based Learning Approach for Higher Education Institutions

2) Woschank, Kaiblinger, Miklautsch: Digitalization in Industrial Logistics: Contemporary Evidence and Future Directions

3) Raith, Woschank, Zsifkovits: Metamodeling in Manufacturing Systems: Literature Review and Trends

4) Garcia, Rauch, Salvalai, Matt: AI-Based Human-Robot Cooperation for Flexible Multi-Variant Manufacturing

5) Rauch, De Marchi, Jitngernmadan, Martin: A Descriptive Analysis for Education and Training on Automation 4.0 in Thailand

December 17, 2020

We are pleased to announce that, after an ongoing evaluation, the SME4.0 project will be extended until 31.12.2021. This gives us an additional year for further secondments, presentations, company workshops, and scientific publications.

December 17, 2020

Dr. Manuel Woschank, MSc (Chair of Industrial Logistics, Montanuniversitaet Leoben) received the Best Track Paper Award for the publication "Competencies in the Digitalized Working Environment: A Concept for Engineering Education in Higher Education Institutions" which was written in cooperation with Ms. Corina Pacher, B.A. MA MA (Resources Innovation Center, Montanuniversitaet Leoben). Congratulations!