Digital-Gipfel in Dortmund: Festo unterstützt GAIA-X

“Digital trust is the basic requirement for new data-based solutions and digital business models. That's why we need a trustworthy and secure but also powerful data infrastructure in Europe,” says Dr Frank Melzer, Member of the Management Board for Product and Technology Management at Festo. As current head of the steering committee for the “Plattform Industrie 4.0”, Frank Melzer was one of the initiators of the GAIA-X project. Festo will be particularly involved in the validation and practical testing of various use cases. “For our customers – and thus also for us – security and trust are the conditions for the successful implementation of new business models with the transparent use of a wide variety of data in a well-integrated ecosystem. It is a central concern of ours that the data is not only secure, but that the new digital infrastructure is also based on international openness and partnership,” says Frank Melzer. 

Under the chairmanship of Frank Melzer, a holistic mission statement 2030 for industry 4.0 entitled “Shaping Digital Ecosystems Globally” was drawn up and presented to the public. The three “fundamental European” values of sovereignty, interoperability and sustainability are central anchor points of the mission statement. Based on this mission statement, the platform developed a ten-point plan in which the GAIA-X project is also anchored. Further focus projects are the broad application of the reference architecture Industry 4.0 with the so-called administration shell or the elaboration of good practices and action contributions for a climate-neutral production.

Festo aims to be the innovation leader and thus also the preferred automation partner for its customers worldwide. The focus is on the further development of decentralized, autonomous systems and artificial intelligence (AI) that require a secure data infrastructure. Festo therefore purchased the AI specialist Resolto in April 2018. “The topic of analytics and artificial intelligence will have an enormous impact on our product portfolio, for example by enabling AI algorithms to be integrated both in the cloud and directly in Festo components,” says Frank Melzer.

About the “Plattform Industrie 4.0”

The “Plattform Industrie 4.0” is the central network in Germany for advancing digital transformation in production. More than 350 actors from over 150 organisations are actively involved in the platform, working shoulder to shoulder between politics, business, science, trade unions and associations. As one of the largest international and national networks, the platform supports German companies in implementing industry 4.0, for example by making existing industry 4.0 practical examples known to companies and spreading them across the country. In addition, it provides important impulses with concrete recommendations for action and refers to support offers and test environments. The numerous international cooperations of the platform underline its strong role in the international discussions around the topic Industry 4.0.