EFESO presents the winners of the INDUSTRIE 4.0 AWARD 2024
Experte: Anna Reitinger, Chief Marketing Officer DACH, EFESO | 02/26/2025 | Teilen auf in
Munich, February 26, 2025 – The winners of the INDUSTRIE 4.0 AWARD 2024 were honored today at BMW Welt Munich. The winners are the Bühlertal plant of Alfred Kärcher SE & Co. KG, the production site of ams OSRAM in Schwabmünchen, the Blaichach / Immenstadt (BhP) plant of Robert Bosch GmbH and Stadtwerke München GmbH. The international operations consultancy EFESO has been presenting the prestigious industry award for pioneers in industrial digitalization and automation since 2013.
The INDUSTRIE 4.0 AWARD jury selected the winners for 2024 in the categories “Integrated Automation”, “Smart Digitalization” and “Data Driven Manufacturing” based on numerous applications from globally active companies. The jury panel also awarded a special prize for “Citizen Development”. The renowned jury decision-makers from the industry make their choice based on anonymized project presentations. This means that all applicants have the same starting conditions and opportunities.
Solution characteristics: pragmatism and success control
In 2024, two main topics emerged both in the applications as a whole and in the solutions of the INDUSTRIE 4.0 AWARD winners: Firstly, after a phase of technology orchestration in the direct areas, many Industry 4.0 pioneers are now expanding their digitalization horizon to indirect areas at the site or even in the global plant network.
On the other hand, the focus is often on the easiest possible access to process data and technical information: employees are using AI technologies and community platforms in particular to upskill themselves more quickly. Additionally, they’re driving change more actively than in previous years. Companies are taking a pragmatic approach in order to implement good ideas quickly. At the same time, they are paying more attention to transparent monitoring of the success of automation and digitalization projects.
Alfred Kärcher SE & Co. KG / Werk Bühlertal wins in the category "Integrated Automation"
At the Obersontheim / Bühlertal site, Kärcher manufactures different high-pressure cleaners in one line. A team of product developers and production employees were confronted with several extremely demanding challenges such as high product variance and integration costs.
The winning team rebuilt the assembly line with a holistic, modular approach, incorporating the entire value chain from development to the end customer. The objectives were to increase flexibility in production, reduce costs and improve quality. The Industry 4.0 solution interconnects automation systems, robots and digital workstations, using several technologies and elements such as 'bin-picking'.
OSRAM / Werk Schwabmünchen awarded for its “Smart Digitalization” solution
The ams OSRAM plant in Schwabmünchen supplies primary products for OSRAM. These are, in particular, tungsten wires for light sources in vehicle headlights and chemical base materials for LED products. The plant, which has been producing since 1961, has been making intensive use of IoT and digitalization technologies for around 20 years.
The award-winning, in-house Industry 4.0 solution makes the smallest anomalies in a highly complex production process visible and solvable. A “Production System 4.0” combines lean management and digitalization. In addition to the pragmatic, cost-oriented approach to improving work processes, the plant impressed with its data analytics platform and self-developed AI solutions. It uses around 1,000 data sets across heterogeneous process steps, from chemical reduction and metal-physical sintering to mechanical forming processes.
Robert Bosch GmbH / Blaichach / Immenstadt plant (BhP) wins the category “Data Driven Manufacturing“
Robert Bosch GmbH manufactures products for the automotive industry at its Blaichach / Immenstadt (BhP) plant, including high-tech systems for driving safety and brake boosters. The company site, which has existed for more than 60 years, is divided into the Immenstadt and Blaichach plants and is already one of the winners of the INDUSTRIE 4.0 AWARD.
For the “BPS4.0+” project, which won the INDUSTRIE 4.0 AWARD in 2024, the company further expanded its automation and digitalization successes at the site and in the network of all 18 plants worldwide in order to achieve productivity increases, among other things. The starting point was the establishment of a data-driven organization in production, in particular by employees in production and data scientists.
In addition, the Industry 4.0 solution is already in use as a core element for data-supported improvement and innovation in all plants. More than 20,000 active IT users are currently interacting with it across the entire network, with indirect functions such as purchasing included in the core areas of production, logistics, (process) development and special machine construction.
Special prize “Citizen Development” for Stadtwerke München GmbH (SWM)
In line with the principle of “Citizen Development”, Stadtwerke München GmbH enables employees without IT expertise to program simple IT tools themselves and maintain them independently. With its solution, the municipal energy supply company illustrates how “self-help for digitalization” is launched, actively managed and successfully developed in a group with several thousand employees. Although it is not an industrial project, the project serves as a role model for solving comparable challenges in the digital transformation and networking of different organizational levels and departments.
SWM is implementing the citizen development approach with a team of permanently employed, professional software coaches. They organize the community and offer individual support, training and events. At the time of receiving the INDUSTRIE 4.0 AWARD, the community comprised around 800 citizen developers, with at least one community member represented in half of all Group departments.
