On the initiative of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and OWL University of Applied Sciences, the SmartFactoryOWL was created as a future factory for intelligent automation at a cost of around 5 million euros. Equipped with a real IT and production environment worth a further 5 million euros, it is both a test and demonstration platform and a learning environment for scientists and students. In future, small and medium-sized companies can also be supported on their way to digitalized production.

"We have made it our mission not only to be a pioneer in Industry 4.0, but also to bring these technologies to companies," explained Prof. Jürgen Jasperneite, Head of the Fraunhofer Application Center IOSB-INA in Lemgo and initiator of SmartFactoryOWL. "Project areas offer the opportunity to temporarily set up machines or plant components for pilot operation, equip them with Industry 4.0 solution modules and put them through their paces. This makes it possible to evaluate potential and necessary investment decisions at an early stage."

"The SmartFactoryOWL is a real milestone in further raising the profile of Lemgo as a science location," explained University President Dr. Oliver Herrmann. "With this research factory, we are pooling the expertise of the Institute for Industrial Information Technology and the research focuses of the OWL University's Department of Production and Economics on the digitalization of industry as well as the Fraunhofer Application Center under one roof."

The research factory also opens up new opportunities for teaching: "With SmartFactoryOWL, we offer practice-integrated teaching on campus in a real factory environment," emphasized Herrmann. Together with the expansion of the Centrum Industrial IT (CIIT), a technology campus for industrial automation is being created at the Lemgo site - an infrastructure element for the activities of the "it's owl" cluster of excellence, of which OWL University and Fraunhofer are the main pillars.