At the beginning of the first day Ernst Stöckl-Pukall, head of the division “Digitalization, Industrie 4.0”, responsible head of division at the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Henning Banthien, CEO of the office Platform Industrie 4.0 and Dr. Daniel Sennf, head of the office Platform Industrie 4.0 welcomed all the attendees. It was the first time since the beginning of the pandemic that a working group retreat took place physically. Right at the start the participants were invited to think outside the box and look at data spaces beyond the Industrie 4.0 ecosystem: During his lecture “Platform Revolution and Data Spaces” Geoffrey Parker, MIT Initiative for the Digital Economy, depicted his perspective on international data ecosystems. He explained how various large businesses today are founded on the platform business model and described the main success factors such as network effects, monetization or governance-structures. The US-American information economyst Parker is professor for engineering at the Datmouth College and published several books on the topic “Platform Revolution”.

During the course of the retreat the lectures offered profound insights in the potential and the challenges that come with bringing the data ecosystems into practice. Michael Schäfer, DRM Datenraum Mobilität, explained what a data space could look like practically and how it would function. Moreover Dr. Holger Berg, Wuppertal Institute, explained how the Digital Product Passport can be used as a leverage to shape the digital transformation sustainably.  

Another highlight was the lecture by Erich Barnstedt, Microsoft Azure, on the topic “Northern Lights Project – Carbon Capture and Storage with Asset-Administration-Shell". Within the scope of this Norwegian project an infrastructure is being developed that makes it possible to permanently store CO-emmissions in underground deposits. Here the success of the Asset Administration Shell (AAS), which is being used in the project, has been emphasized .

The second day of the retreat began with a warm welcome from Udo Philipp, Secretary of State in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and Dr, Otto Bode, head of division in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Motivating insights in the use of data spaces have been granted by Dr. Frank Possel-Dölken, Phoenix Contact and chairman of the corporate alliance's steering committee at Plattform Industrie 4.0 in is lecture on “data spaces as a gamete of disruptive data logistics. Moreover the participants got to listen to a lecture on the working process whitepaper and the further development of the platform as well as exciting discussions with the working group leaders.

The participants actively engaged in discussions and rounds of questions. The participants responded especially positive to the panel “Inside the box – cornerstones of the data space Industrie 4.0” . First Bernd Vojanec, , gave practical insights on how to use the Asset Administration Shell lieferte zunächst Bernd Vojanec von Wittenstein. In an open discussion round the speakers Frank Göller, VW Konzernlogistik, and Matthias Bölke, IDTA (Industrial Twin Association), answered all question on Catena-X and the IDTA. In the end,Ernst Stöckl-Pukall, head of division at Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action, and Dr. Björn Sautter, Festo, explained the importance of the initiative  „Manufacturing-X“ for the Industrie 4.0. Manufacturing-X should make it possible to build resilience, establish sustainability and ensure the competitiveness of our industry.