Innovation will lead to smart industry, finds Co-summit

Software innovation and cyberphysical systems are the enablers of the new smart industry era. This was the major conclusion of this year’s Co-summit 2015 held in the German capital Berlin and organised by ITEA, the EUREKA Cluster on software-intensive systems and services, and by the ARTEMIS Industry Association on embedded and cyberphysical systems.

The event, attended by Horizon 2020 Projects, also discussed the future of smart manufacturing and the impact of software innovation in smart industry, or Industrie 4.0. Over the two-day conference held on 10 and 11 March, a diversity of projects, presentations and discussions demonstrated the central and crucial role played by ITEA and ARTEMIS projects in the creation of new, smart manufacturing and processing.

In her keynote address, Jutta Schneider, director of eDrive and software technologies at Daimler, underlined the importance of “software innovation as a key driver”, a view that was resoundingly echoed by other prominent speakers from the German Government, the European Commission and industry.

In the Co-summit theme speech, Heinrich Daembkes, president of the ARTEMIS Industry Association, stated that “software is increasingly influencing the entire value chain and software is even defining the features of products and thus their competitiveness – it determines whether or not you will succeed in the marketplace”. With a need to focus on driving digital technology to further exploitation and the creation of some 150,000 jobs annually in Europe, he added that, as ARTEMIS, “We are actively supporting the industry to address the public authorities with their insights to ensure priority is given to investments in cyberphysical systems.”

Rudolf Haggenmüller, ITEA chairman, underlined how ITEA “projects are at the heart of business, one in which software innovation has a huge impact. We are witnessing the merging of the real world with the virtual world and the smart industry as a result is characterised by strong customisation of products, high flexibility, integration of customers and suppliers.

“Industry is being challenged to do many conflicting things all at the same time – increase productivity and reduce energy, increase flexibility and reduce costs, cut time to market and satisfy demand for high quality and variety of products,” Haggenmüller added. “Without software innovation this would be inconceivable.”

The end of the Co-summit signalled the beginning of a new phase of impactful projects that will help support European industry and benefit society worldwide. Coverage of the event, including interviews with Daembkes, Haggenmüller and Schneider, can be found in the next edition of Portal, which will be published next month.