Guests at the event included Martin Günthner, Senator for Economics, Labour and Ports, the Chancellor of the University of Bremen, Dr. Martin Mehrtens, and Frank Maier, CEO of Lenze. In his speech, Bremen's Senator for Economic Affairs emphasized the positive effects of the commitment for Bremen as an IT location. "The university and the entire business location need strong corporate partners who can successfully position themselves on the market in the global growth area of Industry 4.0. With Dock One, Lenze is building on the strengths of our location and helping to further develop Bremen as an up-and-coming IT location." Maier shares this opinion, explaining the Group's decision in favor of Bremen with the good university infrastructure. "As a company, we naturally need well-trained specialists and graduates. Students from the fields of computer science or production technology in particular find attractive jobs thanks to the close links between business and research," he explains.

Dynamic climate at the Bremen location

encoway's management is convinced of the advantages of the location, as the subsidiary of the Lenze Group was founded here 18 years ago as a start-up. The IT experts sell software for product configuration, price calculation and quotation generation - the process is known as Configure Price Quote (CPQ). The fact that the Group is benefiting from the dynamic climate around the Bremen Technology Park is demonstrated by the establishment of another subsidiary: the specialist for cloud applications, digital platforms and mobile apps, logicline GmbH, has had its own office in the Hanseatic city since the beginning of this year. The Lenze Group currently employs over 200 people in Bremen and expects this number to rise by a further 40 in the next twelve months alone.

The new digital innovation lab is used by the Lenze Group for internal development work. In addition, there are joint projects with customers, partners and research institutions. Dock One acts as a think tank with the aim of successfully implementing digitalization ideas for Industry 4.0 projects as well as digital business models and products. A creative atmosphere has been created to promote new ideas and solutions. In the light-flooded lounge, teams can work freely and flexibly outside their usual workplace, just like start-ups. "In light of the massive advances in digitalization in the industry, we need unconventional thinking spaces in which prototypes can be created at high speed and new ideas and trends can be tested," explains Maier.

Creativity for new business models

At the opening, guests were able to see for themselves the first projects bearing the Dock One stamp. Virtual reality glasses, for example, open up completely new perspectives when it comes to configuring and developing products. Another exhibit concerns the interface between man and machine. The voice query "Hi Alexa, how's the engine?" could soon be a reality in many areas. Participants learned how creative techniques can be used to develop new business models in the Ideation, Design Thinking & Co. work area. Some of the results of Bremen's first Industry 4.0 Hackathon were also presented. The term hackathon, coined in Canada and the USA, refers to events in which solutions to problems are developed in the shortest possible time. In February 2018, encoway offered 80 students, software developers, designers and creative minds from science and practice a platform to solve industrial problems within 48 hours. Another hackathon will take place from October 12 to 14, 2018. kp