The competitive situation of manufacturing companies is characterized by growing dynamics, increasing process complexity and shorter product and innovation cycles. At the same time, new digital technologies allow real-time networking of production facilities and open up new possibilities for increasing productivity.

Within the Future Laboratory Production of the Center for Digital Innovations (ZDIN), innovative approaches for networking, modelling and optimisation of production processes and process chains are being researched in an interdisciplinary collaboration of universities, colleges and companies in Lower Saxony. Examples are secure data and IT infrastructures, easily configurable cyber-physical systems or practical methods of intelligent data evaluation. Furthermore, the Zukunftslabor plays an important role in the education and training of industry 4.0. In this context, OFFIS researches a design method for efficient IIoT control systems. This consists of a modular hardware platform and a software development solution based on the IEC 61499 standard.