IMS2020

IMS2020 - international research project

The international research project „Intelligent Manufacturing Systems 2020“ (IMS2020) deals with the future-oriented development of Intelligent Manufacturing Systems and strategies for 2020.
The EU project promoted with 2 million euros is supported internationally by 15 institutes and universities, in Germany by the Research Institute for Operations Management at Aachen University (Forschungsinstitut für Rationalisierung, FIR).

The XING-Group IMS2020 creates a platform for the international cooperation and promotes the exchange of industry, research centres and university institutes.
The project collects and supports innovative ideas in Manufacturing and creates perspectives in times of the worldwide economic crisis. The European Union, Switzerland, USA, Korea and Japan belong to the involved IMS regions.

The project is subdivided into five main areas which are gathered by the different IMS partners, including the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) or the University of Tokyo, and are analyzed afterwards.

The first main area deals with to the provision of action guidelines for the sustainable Manufacturing.
Among the rest, it deals with the different life cycles of a product, the assessment of engaged technologies, to the working processes as well as the industrial safety.

The second area concentrates upon the energy-efficient Manufacturing. This area sheds light upon aspects oriented to environment like the reduction of the raw material and energy waste in Manufacturing.

The next area deals with the analysis of new technologies which could decisively influence the future development in the Manufacturing area.

The fourth work area examines and develops standards concerning their influence on the advancement and improvement of new and existing Manufacturing Systems.

The fifth area deals with the subject of advanced training in the Manufacturing Sector. It supports different advanced training methods as for example E-Learning.