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The implementation of “Vision Industrie 4.0” focuses on the networking of intelligent production systems.

As deduced in Sect. 3.3, self-organisation or autonomy is a relevant research topic for the textile industry. In the field of textile machines and self-organisation, self-optimising systems are of particular importance.

In the following section, relevant research topics in the area of Industrie 4.0 are derived for the textile industry. This derivation of topics is based on an industry survey, the analysis of current projects, the strategy papers on Industrie 4.0 and the current situation of the textile industry in Germany.

This article delineates the work of an interdisciplinary research group concerning the implementation of a digital assistance system in the German textile industry. Using a holistic approach, researchers from different disciplines contribute to the design of an integrated socio-technical method that guides industrial actors in developing and implementing digital assistance systems that are applicable on the shop-floor level and at the same time take into account various social and organizational demands. Following this approach, the development of new technologies is coordinated with innovative social practices, for example, learning techniques or organizational changes. Furthermore, aspired users of the assistance system participate in the project by contributing their expertise of the working progress as well as by defining requirements essential towards addressing the various challenges at hand. The conceptual outline and early findings of the project, including the development of a prototype of the assistance system, are presented in this article.

Assistance systems for production machines have to fulfill several functions depending on specific tasks and users. The overall purpose of the use of an assistance system in production is to raise the efficiency of the production. In this text, one approach for an assistance system for a weaving machine is presented. Based on a systematic approach, a system is designed in order to facilitate the repair of broken weft yarns. Using this approach an assistance system with a high general user acceptance can be achieved. Furthermore, the use of assistance systems will have an impact on the necessary qualification of operators in the weaving mills.

Germany's Textile Industry with its hybrid and highly fragmented value chains is seen as both a future key supplier and adopter of digital operations technologies and Industry 4.0 solutions. Yet, companies hesitate to start their digital transformation process due to severe implementation barriers including uncertainties about financial benefits and the lack of specialist knowledge. In order to overcome these challenges and to help textile manufacturersto kick-start their digital transformation, we are setting up the Textile Learning Factory 4.0 at the Institut fur Textiltechnik der RWTH Aachen University in Aachen, Germany. The factory will become a central location to deliver capability building in a real-life demonstration and learning environment as well as a test base for piloting and scaling-up new digital solutions. Therefore, an end-to-end value chain from order to delivery for the manufacturing of smart, customer-specific textile products will be set up within the factory. The line will feature two development stages (Lean and Industry 4.0). In the Lean stage participants are going to learn how to systematically conduct a digital transformation while the Industry 4.0 stage will serve as a demonstrator featuring state-of-the-art digital solutions. In this paper, we want to present the initial motivation, the current status and the future prospects of the factory.

Smart manufacturing concepts merge modern production machinery and digital technologies in Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS). CPPS consist of intelligent, real-time-capable, networked sensors and actuators. Operation of such advanced machinery requires substantial employees' skills in various qualification phases. This holds true for different industries, such as the German textile industry. An important measure that is intertwined with the implementation of advanced manufacturing concepts in textile production is supporting employees in their development of skills concerning smart manufacturing concepts. For this purpose, the development of Augmented reality (AR)-based assistance systems in connection with up-to-date textile machinery is regarded as a promising step towards the successful implementation of adequate, user-adaptable digital working environments in the textile industry. As the implementation of such assisted digital working environments in industrial organizations poses challenges, they might most adequately be addressed by adhering to standardized implementation procedures.

Smart manufacturing concepts merge modern production machinery and digital technologies in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). CPS consist of intelligent real-time-capable and networked sensors and actuators. The operation of such advanced machinery requires new and substantial skills in employees in various qualification phases. Successful implementation strategies take these varying skills of the workforce, which result from diverse cultural, educational, age-or gender-related socio-demographic variables, into account. Thus, the need for a differential-dynamic job design in textile production seems more relevant than ever, especially regarding the increasing number of older employees due to demographic changes in high-wage countries,. An important measure that is intertwined with the implementation of advanced manufacturing concepts in textile production is supporting employees in their development of skills concerning these new production methods. For this purpose, the development of Augmented reality-based assistance systems in connection with up-to-date textile machinery is regarded as a promising step towards the successful implementation of adequate, user-adaptable Cyber-Physical Systems.

High-wage countries are on the brink of change, due to social and technological effects. In this paper, we will first give an outlook on both these effects concerning the German textile industry. Second, we will shortly describe the interdisciplinary build-up of our research group which influences the way how we address our research issues. Finally, we will outline two prototypical applications that serve as demonstrators for further user tests and subsequent developments.

17th World Textile Conference AUTEX 2017 - Shaping the Future of Textiles : 29-31 May 2017, Corfu, Greece 17th World Textile Conference AUTEX 2017 : Textiles - Shaping the Future, AUTEX 2017, Corfu, Greece, 29 May 2017 - 31 May 2017; London [u.a.] : Institute of Physics, IOP conference series / Materials science and engineering, 254, 132001, 1-4 (2017). doi:10.1088/1757-899X/254/13/132001, Published by Institute of Physics, London [u.a.]