A joint venture of
Since its foundation, inpro’s goal has been the development of production systems and technologies for the factory of the future. Thus, inpro operates as a joint ‘think tank’ for its partner companies, an approach unique in Germany to this date.”
„inpro gave the decisive impetus for the development of component-oriented simulation models for materials flow. inpro has laid the foundation for standards which are the basis for present simulation systems, and have undeniable relevance for the digital factory of the future.“
„Thanks to its work and achievements in the field of laser technology, inpro can proudly claim to have significantly advanced the global implementation of high-power laser systems in automobile production. Based on delivered innovations and the need to implement them, several project team members established their own company and successfully went to market, for example, Photon AG with 200 employees.“
„inpro addressed all thematically challenging tasks and developed well-founded solutions. In cooperation with external scientific experts, inpro efficiently supports the work of shareholder companies, especially in the early stages of development. For example, working with technical and executive promoters of shareholder companies, inpro identified the potential of innovative foil technology for exposed parts as an alternative to energy-intensive coating processes. By pooling the resources of these partners, inpro systematically developed the necessary procedures to achieve the pilot maturity stage. Results are recognised in the shareholder group, as well as in the scientific community.“
„inpro’s approach for activity-based costing in logistics, which allowed all members of a supply chain to be included for the first time, has led to large savings and was an important precursor of modern supply chain management systems.“
Topic of the Month
Technology-Watch: China on the way to becoming the leading research nation in the field of “Artificial Intelligence”
“Artificial Intelligence” (AI) is a strategic focus topic of inpro. In current projects, its potential is being transferred to various trades of automobile production. In addition to ongoing project work with a focus on short and medium-term implementation, inpro also monitors worldwide research and competition activities in the relevant technology fields.
The USA is traditionally known as a nation with a strong research tradition. One indicator of this is the scientific publication activity in which the USA has been leading for decades. However, the tide has turned in the area of artificial intelligence research since 2014. While the US generates roughly constant output in terms of publication activity in the field of AI research, the publication activity of Chinese researchers is growing exponentially and by 2019 already accounts for about one third of the total number of publications of the research-strong nations under review. However, it must be noted that China is not yet able to keep up with the USA in terms of quality measured by the citation frequency of published works. The USA is still the leader here. However, China is catching up here as well, as can be seen from the citation frequency.
This development is fired above all by government support programs in the field of artificial intelligence, which have been massively initiated since 2015 and are geared towards medium and long-term action plans. AI research and development also plays an important role in the area of industrial manufacturing, which is particularly evident in the patenting activities in the field of „Smart Robotics“ and „Intelligent Manufacturing“.