Good news for Aalen University: Prof. Dr. Nicole Stricker from Aalen University will in future be funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in a joint Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT, the Fraunhofer Institutes of Optronics, Systems Engineering and Image Exploitation (IOSB) in Karlsruhe and the University of Stuttgart. Collaborative research centers make it possible to work on challenging and long-term research projects with the highest 1. science and scholarshop (allg.) standards. This is the first time that the institution of higher education has been involved in a CRC. The new Collaborative research center "Circular economy for the eternal product" focuses on moving away from linear economic approaches of "take-make-use-dispose" (take, make, use, dispose) towards greater sustainability through new circular production processes according to the motto "from old to new".
Global resource consumption has risen rapidly in recent years and is having a serious impact on the environment. According to the Global Footprint Network, this has gone so far that three Earths would be needed if everyone in the world had the same standard of living as in Germany. Against the backdrop of resource scarcity and global climate targets, the tried and tested linear economic approach of "take-make-use-dispose" must be critically questioned.
The eternally innovative product
The resource-conserving solution approach that the new research network led by the young Professors / lecturer / member of the academic staff and industrial engineer Dr. Nicole Stricker is working on addresses circular production patterns in the circular factory. "Increasing efforts towards Sustainability are creating many new challenges for manufacturing companies," explains Stricker. The circular factory approach focuses on maximum value retention. Returns and their subsystems and components are to be reconditioned in order to be incorporated into the latest product generation. Each resulting product thus has an individual degree of refurbishment and still meets all standardized requirements - such as warranties - for a new product. There are many challenges for production planning and control that arise from the many uncertainties: When will which product come back? What condition will it be in? Which components can be returned to the cycle?
The new Collaborative research center is dedicated to this problem and is researching new types of production systems in a circular factory. The aim is to enable the integrated linear and circular production of products with an individual refurbishment component on an industrial scale. "The pivotal point here is the refurbishment of used products into current product generations with high quality standards in order to come as close as possible to the vision of the eternally innovative product," says Stricker. The scientist and her RU will focus in particular on production planning and control, whereby "intelligent" agent systems using artificial intelligence will also be used.
"The CRC has great leverage for Sustainability and securing the future of industry in Germany and Europe. Therefore, these topics will also be covered in my module component/courses on "Smart Factory" for industrial engineers at Aalen University of Applied Sciences in the future. Now all that remains is to find project staff who would like to research an exciting topic of the future." Stricker, who was born in Aalen, is delighted about the project, which will initially be funded until the end of 2027 with a total of eleven million euros for all project partners.
