Productive 4.0 has recently been highlighted by the Swedish government. An article published on its official website regeringen.se pointed out that the project of which the country is one of the leaders is completely in line with Sweden’s priorities.

According to the report, the government’s strategic partnership programme ‘Connected industries and new materials’ has identified digital infrastructure for industry and industrial testbeds as a key. Professor Jerker Delsing of Luleå University of Technology (LTU) heading the Swedish component of Productive 4.0 in work package 1 explained that the main challenge is to get the different parts of a company’s production systems to interact and share information in order to streamline production and product development.

This is one of numerous aspects to be covered by the new architecture which is currently developed. Boosting an overall efficiency, the platform will enable companies to monitor how a product may be used by end consumers in various countries and take logistical efforts like the distribution into consideration so in the end costumers will not be confronted with unnecessary price hikes.

Sharing information

“Findings already indicate that future technologies will substantially contribute to reduced development costs and related efficiency gains,” Delsing says, full of confidence. He is convinced that the cost factor will make Productive 4.0 interesting both for companies and end consumers. In saying this, he refers to previous similar projects which have shown that companies can cut their system development costs up to 80 per cent.

Finally, Delsing points out something new: nanopayments. “This means that a company can choose to share its information with other actors for a fee. By means of an automated service, money is transferred from one actor to another and the information is made available,” he says.

Because companies begin to see the benefits and profits, they are positive to becoming involved. The Swedish financial contribution to Productive 4.0 amounts to approx. SEK 75 million. It is borne by the participating Swedish partners and the national innovation agency Vinnova.