Excellence: Networking and Digitalization

From 17 to 18 May 2017 the 20th prostep ivip symposium took place in Essen, Germany. 20 years of improvement, 20 years of giving users, vendors and researchers at neutral place for intense discussions on innovations and for networking. This year’s premium sponsors were thyssenkrupp and CONTACT Software.

Over 600 participants from 19 different countries came to the Colosseum Theater in Essen. The location, bridging old and new economy by itself, was consciously selected. Following the motto “Digitalization for Products and Production” special focus of the event was on Systems Engineering and Digital Manufacturing. 76 presenters, including 5 C-level keynotes, 35 exhibitors and the demonstrator of the prostep ivip project Synced Factory Twins underlined transformed that into beneficial reality.

Following the results of the feedback poll, all participants where deeply satisfied by the whole setup, the possibilities for know-how exchange, the networking possibilities and the socializing.

But you never walk alone! Taking the 20th anniversary as an opportunity for discussing necessary changes within the association’s work and events openly at the Symposium the members of the board (Dr. Riedel, Mr. Hoffacker, Mr. Ahle, Prof. Dr. Stark), one founding member (Dr. Trippner) and one “young wild” (Dr. Mogo Nem) invited the audience to a panel discussion. The moderator of this session, Dominik Ortlepp, summed up the gathered needs and necessary measures: “In the next 10 month, industry will change faster than in the past 10 years. The panelist came to the conclusion, that more unconventional thinking, flexibility and speed is needed. Of course, there are long-lasting standardization activities which still have reasons for existing. But special forums will be created, where the unthinkable rules the agenda.

Introduced by the keynote speech from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, another inspiring discussion took place live on stage when IT openness and the upcoming CPO Certification Program was presented and underlined by user and vendors representatives.

The exciting evening event at the Grand Hall was opened with the ceremony of the 7th prostep ivip scientific award and honoring two cornerstones of the associations work as prostep ivip honorary members.

Within his closing-keynote, Mr. Waltram, VP IT Delivery, BMW Group, underlined the strategic importance of Software & Services for automotive manufacturers with vivid examples. Cross-discipline thinking and learning from other branches are inevitable. The digitalization-related challenges for disruptive organizational changes are enormous. A prostep ivip, as community, could help here to distill the right messages to the top management to rise their awareness.