Chris Liebold
The TU Ilmenau has launched a research project that will enable small and medium-sized enterprises to better plan their production processes with the help of artificial intelligence. In the joint project led by Berghof Systeme, a software developer from Königsee, the Department of Production Engineering is working with three Thuringian companies to develop an innovative self-learning technology that shortens the time span between product development and manufacturing through to delivery of a new product. By pre-reserving capacities for production and addressing cost calculation already in the development phase, small and medium-sized enterprises can better plan to meet delivery deadlines and reduce costs.
Small and medium-sized companies still often find it difficult to reliably plan the manufacture of a new product with a view to the delivery date and to determine the costs exactly in advance. Without using digital techniques, an initial draft is made of the product or project idea, on the basis of which all the data for the production process is estimated: the number of components to be used, the possible delivery date, the total cost of production, etc. However, even experienced production employees are often far off the mark with this approach. Especially with new products that have not yet been manufactured in this form in the company, serious planning errors and miscalculations occur. The consequences are delayed delivery dates or sudden sharp increases in manufacturing costs.
The AgiLief project ("Agile Engineering and Supply Chain Planning for New Products through Early Pattern Recognition"), which the TU Ilmenau is carrying out together with three partners - the software developer Berghof Systeme, Analytik Jena GmbH, a company for analytical measurement technology and biotechnology, and IWB Industrietechnik GmbH, a machine construction company from Gotha - promises precise planning of production processes, times and costs. For two years, the TU Ilmenau and its partners are developing a self-learning planning software, which should make it possible to have the development and production capacities available for all manufacturing processes already at the beginning of the manufacturing process and to specify them in real time during the further product development. In this way, the time span between the development and manufacture of a new product is to be significantly reduced.
With the help of data from previous company projects, the planning software uses artificial intelligence and pattern recognition methods to determine the development and production capacities required for the new product or project as early as the initial design stage. As the production process progresses, the self-improving software is constantly synchronized and updated so that the company has the latest data available at all times.
The data thus determined on the basis of systematic analysis is automatically forwarded to a connected network of partner companies, so that suppliers, for example, can make an early note of deadlines and have a reliable basis for planning the delivery of products.
Mathias EiberProf. Jean Pierre Bergmann, Head of the Department of Production Engineering at TU Ilmenau, expects the new planning software for small and medium-sized enterprises to deliver more than just reliable production planning and cost savings: "Digitizing their production processes will enable small and medium-sized enterprises in Thuringia to network better with each other and thus act together, as one big company so to speak, and find orders that they would not have been able to acquire on their own. With the AgiLief project, we want to help them make the transition from extended workbench to enabler of new products. I am convinced that this will have a strong impact on the Thuringian economy."
With the help of the production software to be developed over the next two years, a demonstration facility will be set up at TU Ilmenau to simulate a digitized manufacturer-supplier-customer relationship. Small and medium-sized entrepreneurs in Thuringia will then be able to gain insight into state-of-the-art production technology so that they can also use it in their companies in the future.
Contact: Prof. Jean Pierre Bergmann Head of Manufacturing Engineering +49 3677 69-2981jeanpierre.bergmann@tu-ilmenau.de