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The global economy increasingly responds to industrial digitization trends and develops its digitalization strategies, i.e., through application of Industry 4.0 concepts. Thereby, initiatives and developments are often carried out on a company-, industry-or country level. Hungary is one of the most industrialized countries in Europe since many leading car companies, together with their suppliers and related industries have production sites in this area. Witnessing the unprecedented scale and speed of industry transformation due to digitization in general and the emergence of autonomous solutions in all aspects of production and logistics in particular, it is well justified to deal with the question of what Autonomous Systems (ASys) will look like. How influential will it be when the changes' hard challenges and disruptive effects will be overcome, and what are the chances to meet the critical requirements of collaboration and cooperation? What are the technological and management tools to avoid being stuck in the so-called pilot purgatory? To analyse the ASys development status on a high level in the main part of this study, we introduce a conceptual model, including pillars and dimensions aiming to understand the Hungarian ecosystem in terms of ASys. The suggested framework follows a holistic approach in assessment by integrating the following pillars: ecosystem smart factory, human, product. In the second part a questionnaire's first results are presented: there is yet a lot to do to facilitate a definite turn in the mindset of the actors and to make them realize the relevance of simultaneous and continuous cultural and technological development. It's a newly developed, but already tested model to evaluate ASys ecosystems, which can be used in other countries, as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, manufacturing companies face more difficulties than ever. Unrest in global supply chains triggered by fluctuating customer demand, raw material shortages and crises (Covid pandemic, global warming, wars) complicate the utilization of production resources necessary for economic success. Also, the rapidly changing environment causes existing production plans to be adapted, which results in order changes, causing additional costs for manufacturers. One solution to cope with these problems is cooperation and sharing resources: requesting capacity from partners when having shortages and offering them temporarily in case of excess capacity. In this paper, a platform-based resource sharing mechanism is investigated from the economic perspective. In the mechanism, requests and offers are matched by a central platform applying a complex matching logic. The platform provides valid alternatives based on the incoming orders that the requesting company can choose from. Companies are rating each other’s performance after each interaction based on delivery accuracy; choosing between resource offers is made based on the cumulated rating about the offeror and the price of the offer. Within this paper, the aim is to investigate the resource sharing mechanism from the economic point of view based on an approach to the responsiveness of a supply chain structure to turbulence, to support decision-makers trying to cope with unexpected changes. For this purpose, here the mechanism is briefly introduced, and basic concepts about turbulences in supply chains are also presented. Cost types related to resource sharing manufacturing companies are distinguished, and the model is validated with agent-based simulation. A simulation experiment is performed to investigate the use-case of outsourced jobs having different price levels. Based on the experiment, it can be concluded that there is a price level limit in such a resource sharing federation, under which it is worth it to collaborate with partners by outsourcing certain jobs to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, a significant number of different models and methods are available to assess the readiness of industrial companies concerning Industry 4.0 implementation. In this respect, the SMEs are in the most vulnerable position. Thus, there is a need for a critical review and analysis of the existing models' fit while recognizing the specific requirements of this type of enterprise. The results of a study that has become a point of reference (Mittal 2018) show that only a limited number of the smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0 roadmaps, maturity models, frameworks, and readiness assessments available today reflect at least partly the specific requirements and challenges of SMEs. In this paper, an attempt is made to introduce a solution to mitigate this gap, that considers cultural and location-specific, ecosystem-related restrictions or influences (macro-level view) and particular company-level aspects (micro-level view), as well. The CCMS (Company CoMpaSs) model developed by EPIC InnoLabs is based on an online survey and considers both business and technological views. The answers given by the respondent company are weighted, and intervention points are selected from a predefined set of eight elements per dimension, on the basis of analyzing the responses (coming from different areas). The output of the model (besides the statistical evaluation of the results like comparisons to averages derived from metadata) is a prioritized list of intervention points that shows the most important fields of action for the respondent on an interactive dashboard. The applied weightings are determined by the model creators and result from the inherent structure of the model. The questions and the weights can also be changed as the used technologies evolve. CCMS provides a quick (meaning that the respondent gets prompt results), low-risk, online maturity assessment for manufacturing SMEs, which helps decision-makers to determine target maturity levels in different fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Centre of Excellence in Production Informatics and Control (EPIC CoE) was established with the objective to be a leading, internationally acknowledged and sustainable focus point in its field, representing excellence in research, development and innovation related to Cyber-Physical Production. Within this paper a comprehensive four-step approach for the HR concept for the EPIC Centre of Excellence, which contains of the four processes attraction, recruitment, development and retention of a highly skilled and qualified workforce, is developed. This approach allows a structured analysis of the requirements a holistic HR concept needs to fulfil and guides through a standardized process to develop a profound HR Concept. In the first step of the approach (attraction), the vision, mission and concrete targets of the EPIC CoE are analysed to build the strategic basis for the derivation of strategic objectives for the HR-concept to identify necessary roles and an employment structure to be able to provide an attractive working environment for highly experienced professionals. In a second step, a comprehensive career plan for each defined employee group is derived from the core-, management- and support-processes of the EPIC CoE. It includes the academic formation and technical experience profiles, necessary skills and attitudes as well as future activities and responsibilities within the CoE. This information will be gathered within a competence profile for each role, which builds the basis for the recruitment of suitable employees (recruitment). Based on that career plan, necessary training and qualification programs are defined considering the employees' strengths and weaknesses to ensure the development on their specific career paths (development). Finally, the CoE needs to be able to retain its qualified workforce. Therefore, different retention mechanisms, like an incentive system is developed (retention). As a result, this research work will help the CoE to implement a HR management and development concept based on the developed career plans. This research work is integrated in the EU H2020 funded project EPIC (Excellence Center for Production Informatics and Control). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Centre of Excellence in Production Informatics and Control (EPIC CoE) was established by an international consortium with the objective to be a leading, internationally acknowledged and sustainable focus point in its field, representing excellence in R&D&I related to Cyber-Physical Production. This 7-year project is funded by the European Horizon 2020 Teaming Programme. By the end of this period, the newly created EPIC CoE is expected to become fully selfsustainable in its regional operation that is planned to cover both advanced and emerging countries in Europe. Main objective of this paper is to describe the organisational development and transformation process of an Industry 4.0 oriented state-of-the-art organisation. These circumstances determine the approach how to address the issue of governance closely related to the business model and processes that will be implemented. However, this task has to be facilitated as part of the evolution process envisaged for the upcoming years. First the vision, mission and concrete targets of the EPIC CoE are analysed to build the strategic basis for the derivation of the management and organisational structures enabling the participating partners to harmonise their experiences, skills and competences. By these efforts, the EPIC CoE is conceived as a synergic combination of two entities, i.e. one existing, acting in basic and applied research while the other one is a new company focussing on knowledge transfer and dissemination. In this paper, the special aspects that led to the concrete representations of the governance structure for each of the planned three operational phases will be outlined. These phases are (1) the establishment and start-up of the EPIC CoE, (2) followed by the phase of the evolving and maturing operation (3) to be concluded by the self-sustained one. For the definition of these phases, it is indispensable to define the different levels of the management functions and responsibilities to ensure efficiency, reliability, transparency, clear accountability as well as high-quality services to EPIC CoE's clients and partners. Being service oriented is specifically a key issue, therefore the processes that will be highlighted are grouped into: the core processes embodying the daily businesses, the management processes that ensure the effective flow of all processes that are aided by the supporting processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]