Stefan Walter (VTT) — our project leader — acted as an invited expert on a recent manufacturing exploitation workshop organised by the EU project IntellIOT. IntellIOT incorporates research on intelligent, distributed, human-centred and trustworthy IoT environments and is coordinated by Siemens AG. In a similar way as the knowlEdge project, IntellIOT is developing here a framework in which humans play a key role in the control and further development of AI-supported systems, thus advancing the path towards greater digitalisation.
The workshop took place on 15.12.2021 and focused on understanding new market needs and challenges for the manufacturing industry, including changing customer expectations, shortages of skilled people, data quality and standardisation aspects and sustainability. The workshop also focused on evolving business models, forcing many players to adapt to changing conditions, modify their offerings and learn to operate in dynamic value networks.
The invited experts shared and discussed their insights together with project participants. The expertise and visions provided will shape how the project will address the challenges in the manufacturing industry and how to make use of the project’s means towards those challenges in the best way. The purpose of exploitation is to make sure research projects address user requirements, including business and customer needs. It is also useful in understanding if the project reaches the expected impact. In this context, consulting experts validates initial exploitation models and paves the way for better outcomes.