"A data economy thrives on the participation of many parties"

When it was launched in 2019, Gaia-X was planned as a project to build a powerful, competitive, secure and trustworthy data infrastructure for Europe. To what extent is Manufacturing-X building on these results?

A key technical basis of Factory-X, a funding project as part of Manufacturing-X, is the exchange of data between participants in the data room. This data is used by business applications that enable users to develop new use cases and thus generate added value. The data transfer is to be carried out in accordance with data sovereignty principles in compliance with legal regulations and is based on the principles defined in Gaia-X.

To what extent are the Manufacturing-X activities based on the Catena-X activities of the automotive industry?

Manufacturing-X is a joint initiative of business, politics and science. Factory-X takes up the ideas of Manufacturing-X in their entirety and aims to implement them for the application area of factory equipment suppliers and operators. One basis for this is the work and results of Catena-X, which are reused and expanded to include store floor issues.

With Catena-X, an initial technical basis for open and sovereign data transfer along the supply chain has been implemented. The aim is to use this implementation in Factory-X as part of the "kernel" and to expand it to include the exchange of data from the store floor.

With the Manufacturing-X forum, the VDMA is bundling its activities relating to Manufacturing-X. It also includes umati, IDTA and the topic of data rooms. How is it all connected?

The Manufacturing-X Forum coordinates all VDMA activities relating to Manufacturing-X, represents the interests of member companies and acts as an external interface to relevant initiatives, projects and organizations. In recent years, the industry, driven by Industry 4.0, has done a lot of groundwork to enable standardized, interoperable and cross-lifecycle data access and data exchange. The global umati initiative is committed to a semantic description of machine components and logical linking, thus enabling communication between machines based on OPC UA. Work on the AAS administration shell as the basis for the digital twin is being led by the standardization organization IDTA, while umati is jointly supported by VDMA and VDW.

What are the to-dos in relation to data rooms?

Essentially, the development of basic services and business applications within the framework of the use cases defined in Factory-X and other so-called X projects for the creation of a data room must be driven forward and completed quickly. Time-to-market is also crucial here, as the funded projects take place in a pre-competitive framework.

A data economy depends on the participation of many parties, especially in order to be economically successful. It is therefore important to introduce many companies outside of publicly funded development projects to the data spaces via knowledge transfer at an early stage. Concrete implementation projects can be initiated from sovereign data sharing, resulting in new applications and added value.

The BMWK is currently funding and will continue to fund a large number of X projects that aim to establish various industry-specific data rooms. This requires structures to coordinate and orchestrate the data room initiatives, such as an overarching governance organization with its own legal form in which all relevant sectors are represented. The organization must be able to make decisions quickly and flexibly - even during the term of the funding projects.

What standards are being driven forward in relation to Manufacturing-X - nationally and internationally?

At present, the projects have not yet reached a level of maturity that would justify concrete standardization steps. However, the claim is that the project results will provide a fundamental basis for cross-company data linking. If this claim is fulfilled, we will raise the topic of standardization to an international level and bring the key project results regarding open interfaces to consensual standardization. Despite all deglobalization trends, supply chains are still international. We will not find an all-encompassing solution for mechanical engineering or the automation market with a purely national solution.

What is the cooperation with other associations like? Is there a division of tasks and if so, what does this look like?

Some of the associations are involved in the projects as project partners. This includes the VDMA, which is actively involved in developments in the sub-projects "Use Cases", "Factory-X Kernel", "Transfer", "Digital Business Models" and "Governance and Internationalization" in the central Factory-X lighthouse project. The ZVEI is also involved in Factory-X. Further so-called "X projects" will start shortly, and the VDMA and ZVEI are also active project partners in some of these. In addition to participating in projects, the VDMA will work together with other national and international associations, as Manufacturing-X can only be successful with a cross-industry and cross-value-added core.