Presentation of the research project RETHINK

With the joint research project RETHINK, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Lorenz together with the project partners Software Factory, ITQ GmbH and the Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management (iwb) from the Technical University of Munich is investigating the integration of circular processes into existing production systems. Within the scope of the project, approaches to integrate circular concepts into existing production facilities will be developed. Hence, downtimes in production can be avoided. The aim of the research project is to enable companies to produce more sustainable and resource efficient by using existing systems and raw materials.

Lorenz's work objective is to develop a manufacturing plant that enables the parallel use of assembly, disassembly and reassembly processes on one station. For this purpose versatile and flexible modules are required. The integration of an assembly, disassembly and reassembly line should help to implement circular economy processes by using Industry 4.0 approaches for electronic products. The application in an industrial environment will show that circular economy processes can also be established and implemented in SMEs.