Industrie 4.0/Intelligent Manufacturing SME Test Bed Program Proposal

A dedicated program to involve SMEs in Smart Manufacturing Test Beds and provide feedback on the usage of smart manufacturing standards was proposed as part of the SME Test Bed Program Proposal. This report was released in October 2020 by the technical expert group Network Communications and Edge Computing which is part of the Sub-Working Group Industrie 4.0/Intelligent Manufacturing of the SGSCC.

The Industry 4.0/Intelligent Manufacturing SME Test Bed Program and the related standardization activities can contribute to sustainable economic activities between Chinese and German Small-Medium-Enterprises (SME – Mittelstand). The SME Test Bed Program provides a unique way for interested Chinese and German SMEs that have fewer resources available to actively participate in testbed projects. In this way, not only large companies but also SMEs are directly involved in establishing new ecosystems, technology-cooperation and new bidirectional Chinese-German business relationships. It aims to strengthen the standardization process and dialogue of all involved standardization bodies. This includes direct feedback to existing or new standards and specifications. It shall be noted that the testbed program has no intention to perform conformance assessment and/or certification.

The Test Bed Program provides critical additional resources in domains of education, system integration and human/financial support. The report describes the current ICT Technology and Market Trends (chapter 3), the details of the proposed Manufacturing SME Test Bed program (chapter 4) and the involved parties in SME Test Bed program (chapter 5). It further explains the application process to be followed to acquire the resources from this program (chapter 6), the incentives it gives to the Manufacturing SME applicants, as well as to the industry (chapter 7). Besides, it provides an overview of competence centers and lab facilities (chapter 8) and concludes with recommendations towards decision-makers on such a proposed program (chapter 9).