On 1 July 2021, the new research project “DiNaPro – Model-based digitalisation of sustainable production networks along the product life cycle” was launched at the DiK together with the PTW under the leadership of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Reiner Anderl. The joint project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and supervised by the Project Management Agency Karlsruhe (PTKA) and aims to optimise ecological sustainability in the product development process by means of a uniform data model and data exchange format in the form of an integral digital twin technology. Over the next three years, assistance tools will be developed to improve the quality of decision-making in various use cases and their benefits for the sustainability process will be investigated.
The development of the central data object is the focus of the project. The requirements are derived in DiNaPro based on digital use cases from the different life cycle phases and company levels. The application of the uniform data model and data exchange format should thus be as versatile as possible and guarantee universal applicability. For this purpose, the data object is enriched with data from product planning and design, through production and use, to recycling, which are available to users in the form of assistance systems for product design, construction, value stream design, quality monitoring, CO2 monitoring as well as operational optimisation and process control. A special focus of the assistance systems is the increase of ecological and social sustainability.
The application partners involved in our project see significant economic potential in the areas of transparency creation, quality monitoring, energy optimisation and sustainable value stream design. These are typical use cases that can be found in most manufacturing companies. By using the integral digital twin technology, these very assistance systems developed in the project can be brought into industry in a scalable and, above all, cost-effective manner.
The consortium, led by Department of Computer Integrated Design (DiK), includes the Institute for Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools (PTW), the development partners in-integrierte informationssysteme GmbH, etalytics GmbH and DSC Software AG as well as the application partners Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, Munsch Chemie-Pumpen GmbH and Opel Automobile GmbH. Furthermore, there is an industry advisory committee accompanying the project to ensure an extensive exchange with industrial companies beyond the existing project consortium.
