At the latest since the challenges that the Corona pandemic brought for industry, it has become very clear to a large number of companies that they can only build up the necessary resilience for such dynamically unstable situations by digitising and networking their working environments. In this respect, the last two years in particular have seen a tremendous amount of movement in the industry and today we see digital transformation programs on the strategic agendas of companies almost everywhere - whether SMEs or major corporations. Of course, the maturity levels of individual companies and industries are very different. In this respect, it is important that the status quo in the company is transparent, because a digital transformation can only succeed with an unbiased view of one's own processes and application landscapes and without unrealistic expectations.

From my point of view, there are two different types of obstacles. First, there are the classic technological hurdles that arise from neglecting long-term strategic planning. All too often in the industry, people think in terms of use cases and proof of concepts that are isolated from each other. Without an overarching digitisation strategy and associated IT architecture that acts as a north star to align all digitisation activities towards a common goal, the subsequent scaling of initial solutions is often not possible. This means that the actual potential of continuous information flows, namely the closing of control loops within and across the company, cannot be exploited.Second, there are also organisational obstacles to overcome. Digitisation projects should not only be ordered top-down, but should always involve the users in the development process and make them active players in the transformation. In this way, implicit knowledge is used sensibly on the one hand, and on the other hand, involved employees will accept the projects much better. Many people in companies have great reservations about digitisation projects, as they involve the elimination of process routines and the introduction of new procedures and standards that first have to be learned and appropriated. The more participatory this design process is, the steeper the learning curve is when it is introduced and the less reservations there are about digitally networked work processes.At the same time, it is important to always consciously reflect on successes and to view digitisation as a continuous process. An agile way of working in sprints, in which changes can be introduced, tested and evaluated in short cycles, has proved successful.

In the transformation to Industry 4.0, data security is one of the central fields of action. The aim of digitising and networking our production and working environments is to automate not only the work processes at the machine and plant level, but in particular the planning and regulating processes. This means supporting employees as best as possible in their tasks and decisions through digital tools. This requires that company-specific, mostly implicit know-how is digitally mapped in order to make it usable for AI applications, for example. In this way, IT applications can help machine operators, for example, to control production plants more sustainably by predicting quality losses and excessive energy consumption in real time based on data and thus preventing them. However, the necessary knowledge about the production process, which must be made explicit and digitally mapped, is relevant to a company's competitiveness and absolutely worth protecting. The corresponding IT/OT infrastructures must therefore be reliably protected against attacks, which can occur both via the internet and on site. It becomes clear that Industrie 4.0 solutions can only unfold their benefits if comprehensive data security is ensured.

The E4TC brings together industrial companies, technology providers and science to jointly develop new solutions for the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry. The scope of our ecosystem is deliberately very broad. We are convinced that in Industry 4.0, digitalised networking must already be taken into account in the development processes of a company. From there, it extends through production to customer processes, where, for example, data on the use of a product is collected. Especially in current research on the realisation of a circular economy, it is quickly becoming clear that a true circular economy cannot be realised without such digital data continuity.At the E4TC, such approaches are concretely implemented for testing and validation, for example in the demonstration factory. At the same time, this also serves to communicate these solutions in a clear and tangible way. In this way, the E4TC member community also provides advice and support to industrial companies outside of our ecosystem on questions relating to digital transformation.

Our cooperation always pursues the goal of bringing together or expanding new digital technologies in the form of concrete projects in order to apply them to industrial application fields and prove their benefits.Once a common task and goal has been defined, an agile project team is formed with experts from our member companies as well as colleagues from the centre and the university institutes. This heterogeneous team then develops a concrete solution in the form of a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) in short-cycle sprints over a period of three to six months. We deliberately go beyond purely theoretical conception and always aim to develop not a PowerPoint presentation, but a functional digital-physical solution. Of course, we benefit from the unique infrastructure of the RWTH Aachen Campus with its demonstration and start-up factory as well as various real laboratories.

The networking and collaboration opportunities in the ecosystem of the RWTH Aachen Campus, which consists of top research institutes and over 400 innovative companies, are, in my view, unique in Europe.In the E4TC, as already mentioned, the focus is on the concrete implementation and continuous further development of functional digital-physical solutions. Since this is always done in cooperation with other members, the companies come into direct contact with new technologies and approaches and can at the same time demonstrate their own expertise in a real ecosystem. Regular tours, workshops and events organised by the individual members allow not only representatives of the member companies but also many decision-makers from the industry to see these solutions. According to the motto "demonstrating is better than claiming", competence is credibly shown in this way. The presentation of one's own technological solution component in a larger and application-related context, such as in the demonstration factory, helps immensely to convey the technology benefits in a tangible way. Real innovation can happen at the E4TC on the basis of clearly defined, practice-relevant tasks that are often even derived from the direct industrial practice of our members. We always work with our members to implement what is technologically possible. We cover all phases, from the generation of ideas to iterative testing and further development to the initiation of re-industrialisation. We provide support with many years of expertise and a strong network from practice and science.