Research Project smartDLWD

smartDLWD Smart-DLWD is a research project that facilitates access to AI-driven, data-based services for municipal public service providers. With the aim of increasing efficiency, reducing costs, and opening up new value creation opportunities, it provides a guideline so that both cities and municipal utilities benefit. To smartDLWD Back to the Overview Goal of the Research Project With SmartDLWD, we at thinkBIC are supporting a research project that fundamentally facilitates access to AI-supported and data-driven services for municipal public service providers. Cities and municipal enterprises are increasingly under pressure to operate more efficiently, reduce costs, and simultaneously ensure reliable services. SmartDLWD provides a structured framework for this by developing methods, tools, and recommendations for intelligently using data, automating processes, and future-proofing municipal services. The project thus serves as a practical guide that empowers municipalities to sustainably build data-driven value creation. Project Participants SmartDLWD is led by Fraunhofer IML and implemented jointly with partners from administration, research, and industry. The project combines expertise in AI development, municipal infrastructure, process analysis, and service innovation. At thinkBIC, we support this approach by contributing our experience from digital transformation projects and data-driven business models. This creates a network that equally considers and integrates the perspectives of cities, citizens, and regional utility companies. Our role in the project At thinkBIC, our focus is on making it as easy as possible for municipalities to adopt data-driven applications. We support the analysis of existing processes, develop requirements for digital services with project partners, and contribute to the design of modular usage concepts. Furthermore, we help to prepare the developed solutions in a user-friendly way so that they can later be scaled to other cities and utility companies. Our contribution lies particularly in combining technological potential with practically applicable organizational and process models. Added value for the industry / customers SmartDLWD offers significant advantages for municipal companies and public institutions. Data-driven decision-making, automatable processes, improved service quality, and greater operational transparency simplify day-to-day project work. Citizens benefit from more efficient services, the government from a more resilient infrastructure, and companies from optimized processes and lower operating costs. The project demonstrates how AI and data economics create real benefits in the everyday provision of essential services. Conclusion From thinkBIC’s perspective, SmartDLWD is an important step towards a modern, data-driven public service. The project connects research, administration, and industry to provide municipalities with concrete options for action and systematically guide them towards digital service innovation. With its practical methods and clear focus on value creation, SmartDLWD will contribute to making municipal structures more resilient, efficient, and future-proof.

Research Project – CoLa

CoLa Collaborative Factory Planning for Brownfield Projects (CoLa) is a project for the integrated redesign of existing factories (brownfields) based on digital point clouds and in a VR environment. Multiple participants jointly plan layout variations, evaluate them using key performance indicators, and thus optimize more efficiently and intuitively. To CoLa Back to the Overview Objective of the Research Project With the CoLa – Collaborative Factory Layout Planning research project, thinkBIC aims to fundamentally improve factory planning in brownfield contexts. Existing factories present particular challenges regarding the data foundation and communication in the planning process, as complete digital models are often lacking and numerous stakeholders must coordinate across complex processes. CoLa develops an intuitive, collaborative, and VR-based planning approach based on point clouds of real existing factories. This approach enables the joint and efficient design, evaluation, and optimization of alternative layout variants. This significantly shortens the early planning phase, makes the data foundation usable from the outset, and improves collaboration among all project participants. Project Partners CoLa is being implemented at Fraunhofer IGCV in collaboration with partners from research and industry, including Side Effects AG, Building Information Cloud GLWG GmbH, and Gexcel SRL. As thinkBIC, we contribute our expertise in digital planning processes, collaborative methods, and innovative visualization technologies to actively support the development and application of the VR-based planning system. Together, we combine technological innovation with pragmatic applicability for factory planning practice. Our tasks in the project In the CoLa project, we support the design of a fully collaborative and digital planning process: from developing the foundations for using point clouds as a planning data basis, through the design of interactive VR scenarios, to defining suitable key performance indicators (KPIs) for evaluating layout variants. We help to design the integration of the various data sources and tools in a user-oriented manner and, together with our partners, test approaches for effective collaboration in virtual planning spaces. Added value for the industry / customers CoLa addresses key challenges in brownfield factory planning: the early availability of reliable digital data, efficient coordination between departments, and the collaborative development of layout decisions. By using a VR-based, multi-user environment, planning cycles are shortened, errors are reduced, and planning quality is improved. Companies gain transparency regarding alternative scenarios and a sound basis for decision-making, which offers a decisive competitive advantage in times of high dynamism, scarce resources, and increasing performance demands. Conclusion From thinkBIC’s perspective, CoLa demonstrates how digital methods, immersive technologies, and collaborative working methods can work together in factory planning to make brownfield projects more efficient and of higher quality. The innovative point cloud and VR approach creates new opportunities for interaction, data utilization, and joint decision-making, thus paving the way for modern, data-driven, and participatory factory planning.