Good practice:

Digitalization Parkour

Making SMEs aware of the characteristics and potential of Industry 4.0 technologies requires a practise-oriented approach. A Digitalization Parkour, consisting of several, interactive demo stations, helps to explore and analyse new technologies in a tangible and practise-oriented way. Examples for demo stations are:
• Industrial Internet of Things
• Cobotics
• Blockchain, Crypotcurrencies & SmartContracts
• Cloud- & Edge Computing
• Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality
• Artificial Intelligence & Smart Data
• Workplace of the Future
Each demo station allows the visitor to experience in quick and easy manner how the showcased technology functions and the benefits it offers, but also shows its potential shortcomings. It helps to raise awareness, and provides inspiration and ideas to test and introduce the technologies in the context of the visitor’s company, e.g. through pilot projects.
Each demo station is created and built in connection with real-world examples and technologies provided by partner organisations. The stations might also include the view on financial aspects related to the technologies (e.g. interactive calculation of return-of-investment). The demo stations are designed as mobile and modular units, which facilitates scaling-up and exploitation within a wider context. The Digitalization Parkour is set-up by the Swiss Smart Factory and its network of more than 50 partners. It is a part of an open living lab – thus accessible to a broad public audience.

Personal resources:
o 60h – 120h for the implementation each demo station (incl. instruction materials)
Materials:
o 8k€ - 16k€ for hardware and software per demo station
Infrastructure:
o Showroom (> 200 m2)

KPI for verification at Swiss Smart Factory:
• Number of SMEs visiting the Digitalization Parkour: on average at least 2 SMEs per week
• Number of follow-up projects inspired through the Digitalization Parkour: 3 new digitalisation projects with SMEs per year (projects on Augmented Reality, Cobotic, Big Data)

Keeping demonstrators on advanced technology up-to-dated and running requires constant efforts and availability of technical resources and competences.

Decision makers in SMEs prefer to learn from practical and tangible examples rather than from theoretical concepts. Specially, decision makers in SMEs prefer to learn from practical and tangible examples. It is necessary forany region in Europe to be able to provide open access points, where SMEs (and other organisations) can experience and learn about advanced technologies. Thanks to the modular character of the Digitalisation Parkour, this best practice is easy to transfer to other regions that wish to establish a demo center on digitalisation and Industry 4.0.