Technology roadmapping for the production in high-wage countries

Manufacturing companies from high-wage countries must focus on future markets and products to remain competitive and to ensure long-term success. In a dynamic, global environment it is necessary to further improve the underlying production technologies and methodologies to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. Thus, a technology roadmap for advanced production technologies and approaches has been developed. The roadmap provides an overview of relevant technologies and their technological readiness. It points out challenges which manufacturing companies in high-wage countries have to face. Moreover, the applied roadmapping process is used to align the research activities within the Cluster of Excellence “Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries” to the relevant topics concerning the cluster’s four main research areas, namely the individualized, virtual, hybrid and self-optimizing production. This paper describes the roadmapping process as well as its main results. Regarding each of the four research fields, a technology radar including exemplary technologies evaluated e.g., by their state of development is presented. Furthermore, relevant challenges, future trends and scientific tasks are discussed as main drivers influencing the cluster’s research activities.