The Plattform Industrie 4.0 is a dynamic community of over 300 Germany-based companies and organizations, associations, policymakers and academia. It has proven itself to be a driving force and catalyst for the future of industry. Its composition and working methods are unique on an international scale. Important concrete results and recommendations have been presented in the areas of business development, technology, law, labor, and skills development, and have been adopted and further developed by stakeholders in industry, associations, and academia. Among the key results of thePlattform Industrie 4.0 are the development of the Asset Administration Shell concept, which enabled the establishment of cooperatively operated data spaces such as Catena-X and Manufacturing-X, as well as the establishment of important international collaborations with France, the U.S., Japan, and Korea, among others. Together with the initiatives on digital infrastructure (8ra) and data ecosystems (Manufacturing-X), Industrial AI will form the central guiding principle of the Plattform Industrie 4.0 in the future.
Steering Committee of the Plattform Industrie 4.0
The Steering Committee coordinates and oversees all activities within the Plattform. It directs the its technical and substantive work and consolidates the results from the topic-specific Working Groups. The Steering Committee determines the personnel composition and work assignments for existing or, if necessary, newly established thematic Working Groups as needed.
The Steering Committee consists of
- Leading companies: Schunk, BASF, Bosch, Festo, SAP, Siemens, Telekom (recently expanded to include Tennet, Schwarz Group, and Rheinmetall)
- Associations: BDI, Bitkom, ZVEI, and VDMA
- Research: Fraunhofer Society and the spokesperson for the Industrie 4.0 Research Advisory Board (Forschungsbeirat)
- Government: BMWE and BMFTR
- Permanent guests: Heads of the working groups (currently ABB, Bosch, Dürr, ifm, Accenture, as well as other companies such as Wittenstein, Trumpf, Infineon, and Gea)
The Steering Committee is chaired by a company representative from among the platform’s leading companies. Henrik A. Schunk currently chairs the Industry 4.0 Platform Steering Committee. The chairmanship of the Steering Committee rotates among the companies represented on the committee. The Steering Committee meets four to five times a year.
Steering Committee of the Plattform Industrie 4.0
The Steering Committee of the Plattform consists of the heads of the responsible Federal Ministries — the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) and the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR) — as well as other leading representatives from industry and academia. The Steering Committee is the highest decision-making body; it defines the overarching objectives, determines the strategic direction, staffing, and financial resources, and represents the Plattform in public. The organizations represented on the Steering Committee are the CEOs of the eight leading companies, as well as the presidents of the Fraunhofer Society and the BDI, and optional guests as needed.
The Steering Committee typically meets once or twice a year.
