Spring was still a long way off in mid-March, but there was anticipation and a zest for action in the air at the Design Offices in the Macherei in Munich. On March 18, around 300 participants met in Munich to learn more about the Manufacturing-X data ecosystem and discuss various use cases together.

The motto of the congress was "Creating concrete added value" and that was the program: After the welcoming address by Dr Rainer Seßner (Managing Director, Bayern Innovativ GmbH), Dr Markus Wittmann (Ministerial Director, Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy) and Nina Stock (Senior Government Councillor for Digitalization and Industry 4.0, Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection) and an introduction to the topic of Manufacturing-X by our consortium leaders Dr Marc Hüske and Dr Angelina Marko, the presentations from the research projects got underway.

A medium-sized company reported on how it can use the data room to produce components more efficiently for its customers in the aerospace industry, supported by the Aerospace-X project. Process-X reported on a use case that can predictively provide steam for processes in chemical plants. And Semiconductor-X reported on the development steps of the data room for the semiconductor industry.

However, the interested audience should not just listen: All the X projects in attendance presented themselves in 60-second pitches and invited visitors to network in the exhibition of projects. In addition to professional exchanges, there was also the opportunity to experience applications live in the data room using AR and VR glasses.

In addition to users, the congress also focused on providers. Catena-X, Cofinity-X and T-Systems presented their solutions for the data room. Expert panel discussions highlighted the opportunities and challenges of the new infrastructure.

Our congress not only wanted to network the X projects with each other in order to leverage synergies, but also to address SMEs in order to explain the added value of the data ecosystem to them. SMEs in particular need a technical infrastructure in order to confidently and securely enter Industry 4.0 and position themselves competitively. We are delighted that a number of SME representatives were present.

The first SCALE-MX Congress marks the start of a series of events for users and providers. This first event was organized by our project partner Bayern Innovativ, whom we would like to thank for the organization. We would also like to thank the visitors and look forward to continuing the discussions that have taken place.

The second SCALE-MX Congress will take place on October 8th in Berlin. Until then, we will be organizing a webinar and publishing all the news here and on our LinkedIn channel.