More than 330 international participants gathered on January 23rd and 24th in Dresden. Industry and R&D experts from the semiconductor and electronics industry shared their experience and vision in automation for the smart factory. The annual conference, hosted by Automation Network Dresden (AND), provides a platform for industry professionals to learn about and exchange ideas around innovative automation projects.

The presented project reports offered valuable insights into the future of factory automation. Not only the ubiquitous ideas of the fourth industrial revolution were broken down into tangible modules and steps necessary for transporting the vision into reality. The overall digitalization of our economies and lives also leads to transformation processes in high-tech manufacturing. The industry experts agreed that todays’ factories are just too complex to manage or optimize it manually anymore. Emerging technologies will help to improve production processes and ensure a competitive advantage in the global marketplace. Strong focus was the digital transformation in the industry, not only related to single factories or sites but also to the global network of manufacturing locations.

Innovation award for SSMC Systems on Silicon Manufacturing, Singapore.

In keeping with tradition, this year’s “Innovation Award for Automation” was given for a particularly innovative project. This year’s winner, SSMC Singapore, was honored for their “Open heart surgery: Replacing the MCS and introducing another AMHS in a running Fab”. Not only that they had to migrate their central software for automated material transport via OHS during production, they even extended their automation with another conveyor based system including the automated loading of equipment at the same time.

The first day of the forum concluded at Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau where guests had the opportunity to socialize, hold inspiring talks, and to celebrate this year’s award winner in a pleasing environment.

The international “Innovation Forum for Automation” is organized by Automation Network Dresden (AND) and includes the four German automation specialists AIS Automation Dresden, Fabmatics, SYSTEMA, and XENON Automatisierungstechnik.

17th Innovation Forum For Automation Dresden 2020 at the Deutsche Werkstätten Herllerau. A picture of the organizers of Automation Network Dresden and the moderator


More impressions of the event can be found here

picture sources: Automation Network Dresden