Manufacturing-X

Manufacturing-X is a global initiative funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) to establish industrial data ecosystems. These are to be used across industries to exchange product and production data and use it in various use cases.

Manufacturing-X creates a common basis so that further use cases can be easily implemented after initial integration (see schematic diagram). These use cases pursue both industrial and social objectives. For example, Industry 4.0 aims to digitize factories and improve the resilience and efficiency of supply chains. On the other hand, healthcare is to be improved and Sustainability increased. The latter enables recyclers to recover resources from products more efficiently, for example. Standardized product passports such as the battery passport are suitable for this purpose. Manufacturing-X offers value creation partners the basis for cross-industry collaboration in order to bring together the necessary product and process data.

Structure of the Manufacturing-X ecosystem

Source: BMWE - “Manufacturing-X” funding program. Available online at https://www.bmwk.de/Redaktion/DE/Dossier/manufacturing-x.html, Accessed on 2025-Jun-06 21:41.
 

Together with representatives of the Industry 4.0 platform, Fraunhofer ISST has developed the “Manufacturing-X Manifesto”. This is based on the Catena-X basic architecture and lays out the paths to interoperability of these initiatives.

Code example

A simplified matching code example can be found on GitHub.

Fraunhofer ISST supports the following projects

 

Catena-X: The digital ecosystem of the automotive industry

The Supply Chain Act and CO₂ monitoring require cross-company data usage in the automotive industry. Catena-X creates a scalable ecosystem with federated data and services that accelerates innovation, saves resources and makes value creation more transparent and resilient.

 

Construct-X: Simplified information processing on the construction site

Among other things, Construct-X is developing data spaces based on open source principles, a cloud-based open source reference architecture and cloud edge applications relevant to the construction sector. This also includes the development of technologies for the multi-provider cloud edge continuum, which will enable latency-free and secure processing of data on construction sites.

 

Factory-X: A sovereign data space for mechanical and plant engineering

Factory-X creates a sovereign data space for mechanical and plant engineering - a key industry in the German economy. The aim is to overcome a lack of resilience, media disruptions and digitalization deficits and to enable sovereign participation in pioneering technologies for sharing and using data.

 

Aerospace-X: Ecosystem for an efficient and sustainable aerospace supply chain

Aerospace-X is part of the Manufacturing-X initiative and aims to create a federated platform for aviation supply chains. It uses modern data room technologies to promote data-based decisions and strengthen collaboration in the industry - in response to the growing need for data-driven solutions.

 

HealthTrack-X: Digital production and supply chain in the Healthcare Sector

HealthTrack-X is developing an open, decentralized data ecosystem for the Healthcare Sector based on Gaia-X principles. The aim is to secure data sovereignty, strengthen trust and increase efficiency. A digital infrastructure will make supply chains traceable and promote collaboration for better healthcare.

 

Manufacturing-X

Initiative for the digitalization of supply chains in the industry