Manufacturers are under growing pressure: shorter innovation cycles, increasing customer demands, and stricter sustainability regulations are massively raising complexity. In many companies, however, true data integration is still missing – data silos, fragmented workflows, and manual interfaces dominate the picture. The consequences: slow response times, incomplete decision-making bases, and missed opportunities.

‍

With the PDA RobE research project, carried out in collaboration with FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg and Continental Autonomous Mobility, we present a new approach. The whitepaper “How Process-Driven Systems Revolutionize Smart Manufacturing” outlines how executable BPMN models, event-driven orchestration via Apache Kafka, and the creation of a knowledge graph enable a holistic, process-driven architecture.

‍

This architecture connects engineering, operations, and the shop floor in real time. It supports AI-driven analysis, accelerates approval processes, and provides the basis for digital twins that not only represent current states but also store historical data and enable simulations. Real-world scenarios illustrate the impact: in more than 87% of cases, AI in the shop floor process was able to suggest effective solutions and significantly reduce downtime. Engineering change processes were accelerated by over ten working hours through automation.

‍

The whitepaper makes it clear: companies that want to successfully implement Smart Manufacturing must go beyond isolated technology adoption and develop an integrated, interoperable platform strategy. With PDA RobE and the explore platform, a scalable ecosystem emerges that makes companies more agile, efficient, and resilient – and lays the foundation for the manufacturing of the future.

‍

‍