In October 2015 both initiatives started their cooperation at a common high-level conference on digitalization Conférence Numérique in Paris, President Hollande, Chancellor Merkel, Minister Macron and Minister Gabriel as well as President Juncker being present. Since then in a series of technical workshops a road-map for the collaboration has been drawn up. Focus areas of the cooperation, which is closely linked with the European-wide activities of the EU-Commission, are the following:

Scenarios and Use Cases

Both initiatives will work on common comprehensive scenarios describing the future of manufacturing addressing the customer needs. Scenarios are top down archetypical stories made possible by new manufacturing and digital technology. In order to motivate companies to engage in the digital transformation, information about existing use cases in the area of "Industrie du Futur" and "Industrie 4.0" is essential. Use cases are today´s existing examples of manufacturing processes, pilots and [research] prototypes. Both initiatives will collect and display French and German use cases at the Hannover Fair in April 2016. There will be an interlinked online map available. In the second half of the year a common list of scenarios will be published.

Technology & Test Infrastructure

The common objective is to exchange information on technology-developments in both countries. With regard to that a common use of test infrastructures in both countries (an “international lab network”) is planned. Both initiatives have access to several test infrastructures in their countries. It will help SMEs to get access to these shared test infrastructures. Furthermore, the use of the test infrastructures is meant to encourage coordinated action for emerging standards to be proposed to the respective committees. In the second half of the year first joint test cases will run on a common test infrastructure.

Standardisation

Interoperability and global standardization are of crucial importance. To push standardization forward and to secure thriving economies in the context of the EU Single and Digital Single Market strategies, both initiatives have agreed to work at first on a common framework derived from RAMI 4.0 (Reference Architecture Model Industrie 4.0). Further topics e.g. Robotics and additive manufacturing will be considered later. A first version of a shared roadmap towards international standardization will be available by the end of the year 2016.

Training and changes in skill requirements and work organization

To secure the availability of well-educated people in the future both initiatives plan to join forces. With regard to this aim, a closer collaboration between universities and research institutes will be promoted. A planned French-German Academy will also exchange information on consequences of digital technologies on work organization and competences in the work force.

About Alliance Industrie du Futur
Created in July 2015, Alliance Industrie du Futur brings together professional organizations from industry and digital technology along with academic and technological partners, all rallying around a common ambition: to make France a leader in the world’s industrial renewal. Alliance Industrie du Futur is tasked with putting into practice the National Industry of the Future project launched by the French Government in April 2015, in the framework of the organizational overhaul of the New Face of Industry in France. Alliance Industrie du Futur has a particular mandate to support companies in the transformation of their business models, their organization, and their design and marketing methods, in a world in which new tools based, for example, on the digital, on additive manufacturing, on new materials and on advanced robotics are bringing down the barriers between industry and services.

For more information on the Alliance Industrie du Futur please contact Tahar Melliti, Alliance Industrie du Futur General Manager. tahar.melliti@industrie-dufutur.org