November 24, 2017

Two ESRs Jakub Sopko and Leos Safar from TUKE on a secondment at SACS Eng. Coll.
SACS Engineering College (India) hosts two early stage researchers (ESRs) from TUKE - Leos Safar and Jakub Sopko. As this is the first project secondment at the partner institution, the ESRs introduced the project aims to the staff of Engineering college. A visit of local SMEs will follow, to see the importance of automation and digitization in line with Industry 4.0 concept and to provide an initial I4.0 readiness assessment.
A short video of the workshop was made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGBDM_g084I&feature=youtu.be 

November 13, 2017

Industry 4.0 speech at WPI, Worchester
On 13 November 2017 Dr. Erwin Rauch (Free University of Bolzano, Italy) was invited to hold a speech on Industry 4.0 in Europe and the project SME 4.0 at the student award ceremony dinner of SME.org at WPI. SME.org – Society of Manufacturing Engineers is one of the leading associations of manufacturing in the United States and collaborates with many Universities. The Worcester chapter of SME.org honored 5 students of WPI for their effort and dedication in SME related activities. After the speech all participants (representatives of Industry, WPI and students) were invited to a Question-Answer session and discussed Industry 4.0, its role in Europe and in the United States and the impact on small and medium sized enterprises.  

September 28, 2017

SME 4.0 Workshop at WPI, Worcester
On 28 September 2017, a workshop on "Industry 4.0 for SMEs" took place in Worcester, MA at WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute). Over 10 small and medium sized enterprises with a total of 16 people participated in this workshop in the historic Higgins House. In the meeting, hosted by Prof. Chris Brown (WPI) and Visiting Researcher Dr. Erwin Rauch (Free University of Bolzano, Italy), the requirements of SMEs regarding new and modern Industry 4.0 concepts were discussed in form of an interactive workshop.

September 26, 2017

SME Workshops at MUL, Leoben
On 26 September 2017, the second workshop on "Industry 4.0 for SMEs" took place in Leoben, at the Chair of Industrial Logistics.  In all.  6 small and medium sized enterprises with a total of 160 people participated in this workshop.  Prof. Zsifkovits (MUL) and his team discusedd the requirements of SMEs regarding Industry 4.0 - the challenges and barriers.

July 12, 2017

SME 4.0 at the Industrial Engineering Network Conference, Chiang Mai
SME 4.0 goes Thailand: At this years Industrial Engineering Network Conference (12-15 July), organized by the department of Industrial Engineering at Chiang Mai University, the SME 4.0 project was presented. Interested people were able to get information about our current and upcoming tasks. Johannes Kapeller, one researcher of the University Leoben, who is currently on research at the CMU is helping to organize a local workshop with manufacturers from the north thailand region!   http://www.ie-network.com/index.php/ie-network-2017/

July 12, 2017

Preparing Businesses for Industry 4.0, Worcester
 WPI will be helping small and medium enterprises to have some of the same opportunities larger corporations have when it comes to implementing Industry 4.0 in their companies, thanks to a workshop to be held on campus on September 28, 2017. Worcester has been a cradle of previous industrial revolutions in America. The next, fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0 builds upon the three past revolutions (water and steam power, electrical power, and automation) to give cyber physical production systems (CPPS) more responsibility in accomplishing tasks and making decisions. Industry 4.0 is a step beyond robots simply completing repetitive tasks through automation. It focuses on using CPPS—thinking machines that are connected to the IOT (Internet of Things)—to complete work, solve production problems, and control machines.
https://www.wpi.edu/news/preparing-businesses-industry-40

July 10, 2017

IoT Workshop, Bozen
On July 10, 2017 the International Workshop on “Internet of Things: sustainability and energy awareness” took place at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. The workshop, organized by Rector Paolo Lugli, was attended by well-known scientists and managers from Italy, USA, Germany and Switzerland, and discussed the future challenges of digitization in a wide range of applications. Prof. Dominik Matt reports on the possibilities for small and medium-sized enterprises with regard to industry 4.0. Prof. Renato Vidoni speaks about the possible applications of robotics and automation in the industrial environment. More on https://www.unibz.it/it/news/124797-internet-der-dinge  

July 7, 2017

CV Forum, Padua
On July 7, 2017, Dr. Erwin Rauch (Free University of Bolzano) took part as invited speaker at the yearly conference of the Italian Association of Auditors Triveneto with more than 300 participants. The theme of the conference was Industry 4.0 and the role of the auditor in this context. Dr. Katy Mandurino (IlSole24Ore) moderated the round table interviewing Dr. Rauch about the need for appropriate Industry 4.0 concepts for SMEs. In its speech Dr. Rauch presented the EU project SME 4.0 to the audience and talked about the future change in the role of the employee and the auditor introducing Industry 4.0 in Italian SME companies. http://www.commercialistideltriveneto.org/it/eventi-formativi/cv-forum/evento/12467.ef  

June 29, 2017

SME Workshop at WEICO, Feldthurns
As part of the EU network project DaVinci, the IDM (Innovation, Development, Marketing) of the province of Bolzano (Italy) has organized a workshop for small and medium-sized enterprises on the subject of production 4.0 at the machine builder WEICO in Feldthurns on June, 29. Prof. Renato Vidoni was invited to present the project SME 4.0 and especially the work package automation and man-machine interaction. In the following visit of WEICO the participants of the event had the possibility to see first implementations of Industry 4.0 and automation in real production. https://www.idm-suedtirol.com/media/9224c033-e8c4-481f-9f6c-6710c7bcfb27/produktion-4-0.pdf