Implementing the European path to digitization

In Decem­ber 2021, the French Alliance Indus­trie du Futur (AIF) and the Indus­tri­al Dig­i­tal Twin Asso­ci­a­tion e.V. (IDTA) signed a coop­er­a­tion agree­ment. Both orga­ni­za­tions push ini­tia­tives and projects for the real­iza­tion of dig­i­tal solu­tions and inno­v­a­tive tech­nolo­gies in indus­try and see them­selves as Euro­pean part­ners in dig­i­tal­iza­tion. A close exchange on con­crete use cas­es, train­ing pro­grams for users and the estab­lish­ment of com­mon stan­dards are planned. One focus is on the imple­men­ta­tion of projects that demon­strate how the Dig­i­tal Twin con­tributes to sus­tain­abil­i­ty in industry.

“Trans­paren­cy, stan­dards and true inter­na­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tion: this agree­ment is a prime exam­ple of how such col­lab­o­ra­tions can suc­ceed. By work­ing with the AIF, we are bring­ing togeth­er know-how, net­works and con­crete appli­ca­tions in France and Ger­many. The goal of the IDTA is the stan­dard­iza­tion and inter­na­tion­al dis­sem­i­na­tion of the man­age­ment shell and thus of the indus­tri­al dig­i­tal twin. I am pleased that through this part­ner­ship we can pro­mote the appli­ca­tions and fur­ther devel­op­ment of this new tech­nol­o­gy in the field of Indus­trie 4.0. I am con­vinced that our exchange and part­ner­ship will offer both indus­tries added val­ue, effi­cien­cy and speedy imple­men­ta­tion in appli­ca­tion — and thus great oppor­tu­ni­ties to meet the chal­lenges of a com­plex dig­i­tal world more quickly.”

- Matthias Bölke, CEO

“One of our main goals is to make new tech­nolo­gies usable for pro­duc­tion. We want to bring togeth­er all sec­tors affect­ed by pro­duc­tion sys­tems to pro­mote AAS tech­nol­o­gy. The toolk­it will sup­port the dig­i­tal twin and facil­i­tate stan­dard­ized exchanges between dig­i­tal twins. His­tor­i­cal­ly linked to work on the AAS through the first tri­lat­er­al board stan­dard­iza­tion between France, Ger­many, and Italy, the sign­ing of the MOU will mark the begin­ning of increased col­lab­o­ra­tion with new mem­bers. I wel­come this mutu­al­ly ben­e­fi­cial agree­ment between AIF and IDTA, which will advance infor­ma­tion exchange and pro­mo­tion between French and Ger­man com­pa­nies. This gives us the oppor­tu­ni­ty to fur­ther devel­op use cas­es of French man­u­fac­tur­ers and strength­en the tri­lat­er­al coop­er­a­tion between France, Ger­many and Italy,” says Jean-Marie Dan­jou, CEO of AIF.

Both part­ners are com­mit­ted to the intel­li­gent net­work­ing of machines and process­es in indus­try and the imple­men­ta­tion of dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies to mar­ket matu­ri­ty. The dig­i­tal twin is a cross-sec­tion­al tech­nol­o­gy that can pro­vide ben­e­fits in all life­cy­cle phas­es. Spe­cif­ic poten­tial uses can be derived from exist­ing use cas­es. For exam­ple, the Dig­i­tal Twin holds oppor­tu­ni­ties for reduc­ing the car­bon foot­print and pro­duc­tion costs or for increas­ing prod­uct qual­i­ty and machine pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. For the tech­nolo­gies to be wide­ly used in indus­try, the data and access must be stan­dard­ized. The joint def­i­n­i­tion of projects between Ger­many and France is there­fore an impor­tant step for the suc­cess of the Dig­i­tal Twin on the glob­al market.