Funding competition produktion.nrw: Top award for innovative plant control concept

In produktion.nrw, a competition for funds from the European Community held in North Rhine–Westphalia, our plant in Wuppertal presented a concept for an innovative plant control unit. The entry was submitted in cooperation with the University of Wuppertal and Global C GmbH.

The project, which was one of 35 entries, received a top score of AAA. An independent jury made up of representatives from industry and research recommended the funding award to the economics ministry of North–Rhine Westphalia. The jury also said that our plant in Wuppertal, with its highly automated production facilities and proximity to its two partners, was well suited as a development partner and beneficiary.

The objective of the partners was to develop a control system with real-time capability for highly automated production facilities. Besides providing support to production planners, the system had to manage call-offs, inventories and variants and deal with equipment faults.

Owing to the wide range of variants required in the manufacture of lock modules for a complete model platform, the control systems used in the past at Brose had reached their limits. The new system runs four more lock module facilities in Wuppertal, permitting the production of additional variants.

Explaining its choice, the jury said: “This project is distinguished by broad, integrative cooperation between industry and research. It is exemplary not only in North Rhine–Westphalia, but beyond.”

The funding competition produktion.nrw is open to cooperative research and development projects that provide new impetus to production technology in machine and plant engineering. It aims to give a boost to the best ideas and concepts in the state of North Rhine–Westphalia. The purpose is to improve the region’s competitiveness and innovative capability, thus helping to create new jobs.