Sustainability - a strong trend

Cars, machines and industrial plants from Germany are popular all over the world. Since raw materials have become scarce and expensive, sustainability is also becoming increasingly important in the field of production technologies. The Federal Government supports this trend in order to increase resource and energy efficiency in production.

Sustainable production technologies are becoming increasingly important worldwide. Germany companies hold a leadership position in this field. Numerous research projects deal with the question of how resource and energy efficiency can be increased. This includes lightweight construction techniques as well as mobile energy sources and resource-conserving production processes.

Germany owes the title of "export champion" primarily to the mainstay of its industry, the manufacturing industry. In mechanical engineering, for example, about 6,000 companies with over 975,000 employees accounted for a turnover of over 205 billion euros in 2008. With a world market share of 19 percent, German mechanical engineers hold the top position.

It has become important to develop sustainable technologies in the field of production, also in connection with climate change. The Federal Government therefore supports the development of innovative approaches towards increasing resource and energy efficiency in production under a new research priority. At the same time, an innovation alliance in the field of energy and resource conservation is planned for the core areas of production technology for automotive manufacturing. 
 

Protection against product piracy

Providing producing companies with effective protection against imitators is the aim of the "Innovations against Product Piracy" research initiative. Within the framework of the "Research for tomorrow's production" programme, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has been funding work on integrated copy protection since 2008. This is to make the forgery of machines, services and spare parts virtually impossible.

Positioning Germany in Europe

As part of the European technology platform ManuFuture, a group of high-level experts from science and industry are developing new research and innovation strategies and other important themes for the European Union's Seventh Research Framework Programme. These strategies will help ensure that Europe continues to be a dynamic and competitive location for production operations in the future as well. The European debate will be conducted at national level with the help of the ManuFuture Deutschland platform, which was set up in September 2005 with the participation of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. All the important players will thus be brought together, sector-specific dialogues conducted with industry, and research questions bundled with an eye to the European level.

Making mechanical engineering jobs more attractive for both men and women

Innovation in the production technologies field is particularly dependent on technical training. In view of the declining supply of trained workers due to current demographic trends, small and medium-sized companies will find it difficult to recruit qualified personnel for developing and operating production systems as they have to compete for staff with large corporations and attractive jobs in the services sector. Due in no small part to this situation, this supposedly male domain must be made more attractive for women as well.

As SMEs cooperate primarily with universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschulen), which train about two thirds of all engineers, the Federal Government, with its "Research at Fachhochschulen" programme, and here in particular with the "FHprofUnt", "YoungEgineers" and "ProfilNT" funding lines, aims at supporting young research groups in the engineering sciences. It thus creates the preconditions for stronger commitment and greater use of the innovation potential of Fachhochschulen in application-oriented research and development.

The changes that industrial production has seen in technology and in the way work is organised call for occupational skills which - above and beyond manual dexterity - increasingly include the ability to flexibly identify practical and suitable ways to find solutions. In addition to establishing a training occupation, the "production technician", the BMBF therefore issued national further training regulations for Certified Process Manager - Production Technology in 2008.

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is using the current evaluation of the training regulations for the Certified Metalworking Foreman to examine whether and, if so, which adjustments might be necessary. In addition, it is being examined whether changing skill requirements necessitate a new occupational profile for Production Technologist that could also make employment in production more attractive.

 

  • Innovations for resource-efficient production

    In view of climate change and the increasing scarcity and rising prices of natural resources, the improvement of resource efficiency is becoming a more and more important factor in production processes, among other areas. Companies working in the fields of manufacturing technology and process engineering and their production suppliers need to respond to this trend.
    more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/de/12596.php)

  • Research campaign against product piracy

    Protection against product piracy is becoming increasingly important, not least in the capital goods industry. The fields of mechanical and plant engineering are also affected by the problem of illegal imitations. It is estimated that the damage amounts to up to €5 billion, and that tens of thousands of jobs are lost as a result of this practice. Due to the key role of this industry, research is needed in order to find effective prevention and protection mechanisms and make them available to companies at risk.
    more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/de/12095.php)