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The Inclusion Prize of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia is awarded every two years and in 2020 was endowed with a total of 30,000 euros. A total of three prizes were awarded for the main topic "Participation through Digitalization". The assistance system from Fraunhofer IOSB-INA in Lemgo, which was developed together with wertkreis Gütersloh gGmbH, was able to prevail among the 144 applicant projects. The multifunctional, interactive workstation to support manual assembly processes was able to secure third place and once again prove that technological innovations in the context of the digital transformation can lead to numerous new added values and business models, but also perspectives and opportunities.

What do companies in the SME sector expect from Industry 4.0? Where do they hope for advantages, where are there tangible and concrete benefits? These questions are difficult to answer without first investing large sums in equipment and personnel. This is because existing plants, i.e. machines in which investments were made in the past and which are still performing their service perfectly, often do not provide any data for control and condition monitoring. With the so-called "I4.0 retrofit", these machines can be upgraded for Industrie 4.0 applications in order to be operated more safely, efficiently, flexibly and transparently. To this end, Fraunhofer IOSB-INA and the VDMA have for the first time written a guide that provides important assistance, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, in the digitization of their existing machines.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have long been part of day-to-day business in tech corporations - from service to internal processes and tools to products sold billions of times worldwide. And in industry, too, AI has already become deeply inscribed in production processes and established as a competitive advantage. But what about the local SME sector? How does the economy in Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) benefit from the new achievements of AI, how do you create acceptance for the technologies and how can they have a positive impact on the daily business of manufacturing companies? In short, how can AI be used to secure a location?

How can rejects from plastic injection moulding machines be minimised or, ideally, completely eliminated? This question arose after a visit to a Digital in NRW LAB tour and subsequent discussions with employees of the Oskar Lehmann company. So-called "misses" are not only an economic problem in the entire plastics industry. In addition to the machine time, energy and resources consumed, these missing parts often have to be disposed of in a time-consuming and thus expensive manner. The more than 500 plastics technology companies in OWL are also engaged in a social discourse about the use of plastics today. They are therefore faced with the conflicting demands of preserving high-quality jobs in the region and using materials and energy responsibly. The avoidance of rejects is thus in the economic focus of the companies as well as in the social focus.

The decision to fund the it's OWL innovation project AutoS² - Automatic Safety and Security Assessment System for Intelligent Machines - was already made in February 2020. Despite the Covid 19 pandemic, all formalities have now been fulfilled in order to receive the funding decision from the State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy (MWIDE).

"MonoCabs" are compact and narrow and they are supposed to travel on only one rail. The big advantage of the small cabs: on single-track railway lines, two automatically running "MonoCabs" could roll in both directions at the same time and thus strengthen passenger transport by rail, especially in rural areas. Stability is given to the very narrow vehicles, which are to be bookable on call - on-demand - by a gyroscopic system that balances them while they are in motion.

The Industry 4.0 Platform is a joint initiative of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Federal Minister of Economics and Technology Peter Altmaier and Federal Minister of Research Anja Karliczek are heading the platform together with high-ranking representatives from companies, science, associations and trade unions. Experts work in working groups to develop strategies, technical approaches and recommendations on the most important topics of Industry 4.0.

Augmented reality (AR), i.e. the computer-based extension of reality, not only promises a lot of fun and extraordinary experiences in the gaming world, but is now also used as an important component in industry and business. Manual workstations in the factory of the future are equipped with an interactive interface that guides the employee through the assembly process of a product via hand tracking and projection. The extent to which training new employees with the help of these assistance systems works is being investigated in Lemgo by the two research institutes of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and TH OWL.

The conditions for manufacturing companies are becoming more dynamic and complex: whether volatile markets, changing delivery times and customer requirements, new target groups or technological developments - both SMEs and industry are under constant pressure to innovate and master the new challenges. This applies equally to production output and internal processes, e.g. intralogistics. The new innovation project IMAGINE, which started with the kick-off event on 18 June, is particularly concerned with intralogistics processes. Together with Fraunhofer, well-known companies such as Miele, GEA and Wilo want to pave the way for support by artificial intelligence (AI) in internal logistics and bring together application knowledge and basic research for this purpose. The Fraunhofer institutes in Lemgo and Paderborn are providing scientific support for the project. The project will initially run until the end of May 2023 and has a volume of 1.94 million euros.

For companies in the field of industrial production, the necessity of cyber security is beyond question in order to ensure the sustainable success of Industry 4.0. The IEC 62443 series of standards has established itself as the standard for industrial cyber security. The three-part series of events in the form of an online seminar is aimed at manufacturers of automation components and plant engineers. Both companies without experience in the area of IEC 62443 and those with experience are welcome to attend.