The federal minister for economic affairs and energy, Sigmar Gabriel, attended various sites with a focus on Industrie 4.0 in Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt as part of his two-day summer trip from 24 to 25 August 2015. Minister Gabriel was informed about the latest developments and research in the field of Industrie 4.0 while visiting various companies and research institutions.

The first site visited by Gabriel was Infineon Technologies’ microchip factory in Dresden. The semiconductor manufacturer employs almost 2,000 people at its Saxony location, considered the most modern of the 20 Infineon plants worldwide. Talking to employees and trainees, Minister Gabriel spoke in particular about the relationship between work and digitisation, as well as the issue of IT security.

At SIListra Systems in Dresden, the minister was informed about the development of security software for industrial companies. The award-winning start-up demonstrates well how established industries can benefit from the innovations of young companies. Further stops on the Industrie 4.0 summer tour were the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering in Jena, ThyssenKrupp Presta SteerTec Schönebeck and GastroFIB in Magdeburg.

Supporting SMEs in Industrie 4.0

The state of Thuringia demonstrated clearly that it has set out on a path to improve support services for SMEs. In mid-September a “Centre of Excellence 4.0” will be established as an initial contact point for SMEs. The Digital Economy Forum is already bringing together software companies and users to create new contact points between the different actors. With Plattform Industrie 4.0, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Re-search (BMBF) are supporting the introduction of digitised and networked production processes by businesses of all sizes and are thus driving the development of Industrie 4.0 in Germany.