Smart Manufacturing (SM)
Smart Manufacturing covers concepts and technologies for the digital design, networking, and data-driven analysis of industrial production systems, and examines their application from product development through to operation, incorporating the Industrial Internet of Things, digital twins, and artificial intelligence.
Objectives and Content
This course covers the technological, IT, and organizational fundamentals of smart manufacturing. Building on industrial production systems and the digital factory, the course addresses digital planning and design approaches, IT/OT architectures, Industry 4.0, and the Industrial Internet of Things. Other key topics include industrial data management, data pipelines, interfaces, and information models, as well as robotics, intelligent automation, and digital twins. Building on this foundation, the course introduces students to industrial data science, machine learning, and industrial artificial intelligence. In the lab, students apply selected concepts to a model factory. They collect, store, model, and visualize production data and use it for data-driven industrial applications.
Core topics
- Fundamentals of Smart Manufacturing
- Digital Planning and Design of Production Systems
- Digital Factory and Virtual Commissioning
- Industry 4.0 and Cyber-Physical Production Systems
- Industrial IT/OT Systems and Production Architectures
- Industrial Communication, IIoT, and Edge and Cloud Computing
- Industrial Data Management, Data Pipelines, and Databases
- Digital Twins, Information Models, and Management Shell
- Robotics, Human-Robot Collaboration, and Intelligent Automation
- Industrial Data Science, Machine Learning, and Industrial Artificial Intelligence
Relevance and Motivation
Industrial production is evolving from isolated automation solutions to networked, data-driven, and increasingly intelligent systems. To achieve this, companies need end-to-end data flows, interoperable interfaces, and robust digital models. At the same time, engineers must be able to jointly evaluate technical, IT, and organizational decisions. This course provides the necessary systems perspective. Students learn to evaluate digital technologies in terms of their benefits for the planning, operation, and optimization of production systems and to apply them in practice. In this way, the module lays the foundation for careers in production planning, industrial engineering, automation, data management, and digital transformation, as well as for the development of future-proof industrial applications.
