Digital Factory in Austria

A lot has happened in the last few years in the still growing Austrian market for Digital Factory: specialist software companies have moved here, significant competence centres have been established and huge progress has been made with regard to research. This industry predicts strong increases in future market potential.

What is Digital Factory?

Digital Factory is understood to mean an anticipatory and integrated production planning system. The aim of Digital Factory is to assess planning variants early on and to screen their effectiveness through digital technology. Digital models and methods are therefore integrated into a continuous data management tool. The resulting comprehensive network is the key component for optimising product development and product design. Before configuring the factory or production system, it is necessary to construct as realistic as possible a model of the future production run on the computer. To this end, software tools are used for the geometric design of the construction of all plants, machines and conveying systems, and simulation systems and 3D-visualizations are used to create a dynamic image of the production process.

Digital Factory is a technology that is predominantly interesting for businesses which sell relatively complex products, particularly in the

automotive industry,
aircraft industry,
electrical industry,
plant construction and engineering.

Above all, Digital Factory has gained a leading position in the automotive industry. Here the Digital Factory concept is no longer in the pilot phase, but is already successfully applied in productive controlled operations.

The main aims of Digital Factory are:

Accelerating planning processes
Reducing costs
Increasing planning quality
Controlling product and process complexity
Improving communication between development partners and suppliers
Ensuring shorter start-up time at lower costs

Competence from Austria

Numerous software companies which provide planning and simulation software for the application of Digital Factory have established bases in Austria in recent years. These include companies such as CSB Systems Austria, Data Systems Austria, Hewlett Packard and HC Solutions.

Important competence centres in the Digital Factory branch have also sprung up in recent years. These include, for example:

the virtual automotive and research association in Graz
the PROFACTOR GmbHin Steyr
the Voestalpine Mechatronics Center in Linz
the Software Competence Center in Hagenberg
the Center of Mechatronicsin Linz

The last few years have seen huge progress with regard to research in the field of Digital Factory. Above all the Universities of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschulen) offer educational opportunities in this field. The most important courses are automation technology (Campus 02, Graz and FH Wels), production technology and organization (FH Joanneum, Graz ) and production and process design (FH Wiener Neustadt). The ARC Research Center in Seibersdorf is another important institution in the area of research and development for Digital Factory.

The ITnT fairin Vienna and the Digital Factory fair in Hannover are the most important Digital Factory fairs. In addition, the Vienna Tec, the Austro Tec and the SMART – Automation Austria fair offer exciting information on the topic of Digital Factory.

Last Modified 6. June 2008