Consortium Benchmarking: WZL of RWTH Aachen University Selects Companies for the Successful Implementation of Artificial Intelligence in Production
At the final conference of the consortium benchmarking project "Artificial Intelligence in Operations" at the beginning of March 2023, the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) of RWTH Aachen University together with the Institute of Technology Management of the University of St. Gallen in cooperation with the Global Production Management Center (GPMC) and a top-class industry consortium awarded the five most successful companies for the implementation of artificial intelligence in the production sector.
The benchmarking project aimed to identify particularly successful methods, structures and use cases in the systematic implementation and realization of artificial intelligence. For their outstanding achievements, the companies Robert Bosch GmbH, Bosch Rexroth AG, Schaeffler Tech. AG & Co. KG, voestalpine AG and J.M. Voith SE & Co. KG - Group Division Turbo were honored as "Successful Practices AI in Operations 2023".
The "Successful Practices" were determined in cooperation with a jury of experts from the companies Bystronic AG, Endress+Hauser Coducta GmbH+Co.KG, Miele & Cie. KG, Neoperl GmbH, Phoenix Contact Electronics GmbH and Zeiss Industrielle Messtechnik GmbH, which also provided the consortium for the project.
"The topic of artificial intelligence has been on everyone's lips at least since the publication of ChatGPT - but only a few companies can already demonstrate successful use in production today. We were all the more impressed by the level of maturity that the award-winning companies have to show,"
says Jan Maetschke, head of the benchmarking project at the WZL.
At the start of the project in February 2022, the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) of RWTH Aachen University and the Institute for Technology Management of the University of St. Gallen, in close cooperation with Global Production Management Center GmbH and the consortium, first worked out the current challenges in the subject area. These challenges formed the basis for a detailed, written questionnaire study. The companies surveyed as part of the study provided answers on their current status with regard to the topic of artificial intelligence in the production sector. In addition to the initial prerequisites, management, and use cases, the organizational and technical requirements for the successful implementation of AI activities were also queried. A total of 73 companies participated in the benchmarking. A detailed screening of top performers among all participating companies resulted in the ten most promising candidates, which were presented to the consortium partners during the "review meeting" in July 2022. Together, the sought-after five Successful Practice companies were identified. The consortium partners visited the selected companies between November 2022 and January 2023 and analyzed their methods, structures, and use cases on-site.
During the final conference on March 1, 2023, the project findings were presented by the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) of RWTH Aachen University and the Institute for Technology Management of the University of St. Gallen. Finally, the representatives of the consortium and Successful Practice companies discussed and presented how to successfully implement what they had learned in practice. The cross-company exchange is to be continued in the future in the Production Analytics exchange community of the GPMC Global Production Management Center Aachen GmbH.