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Due to the worsening climate change drastic changes in the transportation sector are necessary. Crucial factors for sustainable energy supply are reliable and economical energy storage systems. Associated with that is the development of gigafactories with a capacity of up to 1000 GWh in 2030 in Europe (currently 25 GWh) for the production of battery cells especially for the automotive sector, which is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in Europe. In addition to the required investments, high scrap rates due to unknown interdependencies within the process chain represent a central challenge within battery cell production. Another key challenge in series production is the product tracking along the value chain, which consists of continuous, batch and discrete processes. Because of it complexity the battery cell production industry is predestined for Industry 4.0 applications in order to meet the current challenges and to make battery cell production more efficient and sustainable. Digital twins and the use of AI algorithms enable the identification of previously unknown cause-effect relationships and thus a product improvement and increased efficiency. In this paper, the digital twin of a battery cell production will be developed. For this purpose, general requirements for the field of battery cell production are first determined and relevant parameters from the literature as well as from a production pilot line are defined. Based on the requirements and the selected parameters a corresponding structure for the digital twin in battery cell production is built and explained in this contribution. This provides the basis for measures to optimize production, such as predictive quality.

With the electrification of the automotive industry and the resulting demand for batteries, Gigafactories are increasingly established by battery cell manufacturers or new players, especially in Europe, and North America. When planning Gigafactories, there are various planning challenges due to the high and long-term investments. In particular, the variety of innovations and short innovation cycles creates uncertainty in the planning process. Reviewing the background provided, the application of existing approaches from innovation management to the current battery industry was assessed in this paper. For this, the environment of battery production was first examined in more detail, resulting in the identification of the relevant requirements for an innovation management method. Based on this, standard methods of innovation management were examined and evaluated based on the derived requirements. The evaluation showed that standard methods of innovation management only partially fulfil some of the requirements, highlighting the necessity of a dedicated method for the battery industry. In conclusion, the deficits and potential levers for successful innovation management are discussed.

The application of Industry 4.0 in lithium-ion battery cell production enables companies to achieve increased product quality and global competitiveness, since the majority of value creation takes place in this process. Studies have shown, that improving production performance is the most effective way for battery cell manufacturers to become competitive in the increasingly globalized market. To achieve operational excellence, battery manufacturers must adopt the concepts of networked and digitized production. However, holistically introducing digitalization, data systems and Industry 4.0 methods in all sectors of lithium-ion battery cell production currently poses a major challenge as comprehensive approaches are not available. Therefore, a tailored methodology for the evaluation of suitability and introduction of digitalization and Industry 4.0 is presented. The approach addresses all production-related sectors from logistics to plant engineering to quality management via so called application areas. Multiple development stages divide these into the maturity levels in terms of Industry 4.0. To design each application area and stage, Industry 4.0 use cases from battery cell producers, plant manufacturers, and battery-related research projects are clustered and abstracted for general accessibility. It is shown, that abstracted application areas may be assigned either to all production sectors such as communication or to specific fields such as quality methods. Based on the application areas, corresponding toolboxes are established forming the core of a digitalization guide. To increase the level of maturity with regard to Industry 4.0, the presented paper aims at enabling companies to apply appropriate tools from the toolbox to their production. The systematic and efficient development and implementation of digitalization as well as the holistic assessment of a company's maturity are enabled and provide an essential tool towards increased competitiveness.