Smart Logistics Cluster

Cluster Smart Logistik Gebäude außen & DFA

JRF (links)/DFA (rechts)

Digitally Connected Enterprises

Around 500 company employees and scientists have been collaborating at the Smart Logistics Cluster to realize concepts and solutions for the company of the future since 2012. The business of the future uses the potential of digitization for a comprehensive integration of information and communication technologies with production – in short: Industrie 4.0. Crucial to the success of Industrie 4.0 are intelligent logistics, which organize the demand-driven flow of goods, commodities and information along the value chains. These complex contexts are researched at the Smart Logistics Cluster, brought to life and made tangible, and are tested and implemented directly in practical environments. This is considered a prerequisite for meeting demands for maximum process efficiency and maximum productivity, while meeting the needs for sustainability, as well as climate and environmental protection.
The various centers of the cluster collaborate actively with industry representatives in the following fields of application:

  • Industrie 4.0 for manufacturing companies
  • Smart Services and Smart Products
  • Business model innovation
  • Future logistics
  • Business applications
  • Mobility
  • Buildings

FIR

Prof. Wolfgang Boos | Director of the Smart Logistics Cluster
Central Research Objectives

  • The use of data for a systematic transformation of businesses in the direction of Industrie 4.0.
  • The development and expansion of profitable digital businesses, which includes innovation, development and market launch of new digital products and services, as well as viable business models.
  • The establishment and testing of a sensor-based infrastructure with an unlimited number of Internet IP addresses, fast data transmission via e.g. 5G, cloud computing, as well as IT service platforms that reflect real conditions much better than traditional test environments.
  • Design, further development and implementation of integrated business applications (ERP, MES, …) that support and optimize the production process of the future.
  • Development and implementation of new digital business models, management and utilization concepts for commercial real estate of the future.

Mission

Using Data to Create Value

Four developments significantly impact businesses today: The ubiquitous social networking of individuals, the exponentially increasing interconnectedness of physical objects, new software and IT architectures, and high-speed data transmission. These complex interrelationships in logistics, production, services, mobility and buildings are made tangible and explorable in the Smart Logistics Cluster, enabling companies and institutions to participate in the potential of digitization in the best possible way while undergoing their own successful digital transformation.

Vision

Agile, Learning Businesses

Industrie 4.0 allows businesses to respond to the market quickly and adaptively. That requires integrated data logistics dealing with data management, data flow and information technology along value creation chains.

Major changes, including the transformation of production, logistics, services, mobility and health care, are the guiding principles for action.

Cooperation between science & industry

500

Experts from Industry & Academia

1600

m² Test Environment at the Demonstration Factory

3

InnovationLabs & Theme Park

20000

International Visitors per Year

At the Cluster Smart Logistics, users and provider companies work side by side with institutes and faculties like the FIR e.V. at RWTH Aachen and the Laboratory for Machine Tools WZL, as well as centers from the Production Engineering Cluster, Sustainable Energy Cluster and Bio-Medical Engineering Cluster on potentials and consequences for manufacturing, service and logistics companies, and for providers of information and communication technology.

Members have access to three InnovationLabs, a theme park and the Demonstration Factory as central production and 5G environments to study potentials for industrial application based on various use cases.

You would like to learn more about the topics of the Smart Logistics Cluster?

Whitepaper Digitale Geschäftsmodelle

Campus GmbH

Digital Business Models

The whitepaper “Digital business models in the manufacturing industry” highlights perspectives for the digitization strategy in mechanical and plant engineering, and the special impact of digital business processes.

Go to Download (German)
SAM

CCI

5G – Evolution or Revolution

The Center Connected Industry studies the potential of mobile communications (4G and 5G) in the field of intralogistics. Other research projects on Melaten Campus include the use of 5G in production and mobility.

Interview
Acatech Studie Industrie 4.0 Maturity Center

Campus GmbH

Industrie 4.0 Maturity Index

The Industrie 4.0 Maturity Index is presented as part of the acatech STUDY, which was conducted with the involvement of the Center Industrie 4.0 Maturity. Companies can use this index individually as a guide for their transformation process.

Go to Download