Opening of the Production Engineering Cluster and of the RWTH Business School

Two New Milestones Reached on RWTH Aachen Campus

Today, Dr. Walther Pelzer (Ministry of Innovation, Science and Research of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)), Dr. Oliver Schumy (CEO of IMMOFINANZ), Prof. Günther Schuh (Director of the Production Engineering Cluster), Prof. Frank Piller (Founding Dean of the RWTH Business School), Dr. Bernd Bohr (Vice-Chairman of the Board of Governors) and Prof. Malte Brettel (Vice-Rector for Industry and Business Relations of RWTH Aachen University) officially opened the Production Engineering Cluster and the RWTH Business School on RWTH Aachen Campus at an event moderated by Prof. Bernd Mathieu (Zeitungsverlag Aachen). Guests from academia, industry and politics attended the opening talk. The opening celebrations were a program highlight of the Aachen Machine Tool Colloquium (AWK) 2017, which was attended by more than 1,000 engineering experts.

“Aachen and RWTH Aachen are among the most important research and development locations in the area of production engineering – nationally as well as internationally. This is where new concepts for a globally competitive production engineering of the future will be created and brought to life”, says Dr. Walther Pelzer of the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Research NRW. “I am excited to take part in the official inauguration of the Production Engineering Cluster and the RWTH Business School here today, which are two further key milestones for this location.”

“The cluster is set to become one of the largest research laboratories for production engineering and Industrie 4.0 in Europe”, explains Cluster Director and Campus Initiator Professor Günther Schuh. “More than 150 businesses are already members of this cluster; up to 800 experts from the sectors of science and technology collaborate in interdisciplinary teams with industry consortia.” With a gross footprint of 30,000 square meters, the Production Engineering Cluster is the largest building complex on RWTH Aachen Campus to date. Its research focus is digitally integrated production. Near realtime simulations of complex production chains by way of digital shadowing, self-learning factories made possible by big data usage and utilization concepts for cloud technologies for engineering-based governing of production controls are some of the central issues here. The new electric city car e.GO Life is, for example, one of the successful projects developed in this cluster.

The RWTH Business School, which is located in the Production Engineering Cluster, aims to assist executives to optimally prepare for the challenges of the future. These challenges are the result of increasingly fast technology-driven innovations, which brings radical change to established industries and their process environments. “Managers of tomorrow must understand this development in order to lead their companies safely through technological change”, says Founding Dean Professor Frank Piller, whose School of Business and Economics at RWTH Aachen University is responsible for the curriculum content of the new further-education facility. “In order to succeed, our study programs must be flexible enough to adapt to the specific needs of the students as individually as possible.” In Aachen, this is achieved via a personalized study course at the interface between technology and management, a concept that is currently unique in Europe.

Dr. Oliver Schumy, CEO at IMMOFINANZ, mentioned in his speech that the building complex is a new and innovative format for the property sector: “The Production Engineering Cluster, which brings together industry and science in close cooperation under one roof, is a showpiece for us as a property investment company. The economic world in particular is characterized by an ongoing adjustment process. New interdisciplinary research landscapes, like the ones here on campus, can help to decisively optimize and accelerate the innovation process.”

Here you can read the complete press release.

And here you will find the brochure on the Production Engineering Cluster.

The Production Engineering Cluster in Pictures