4. The Initiative in Germany

A period just short of five years is not a lot of time for an initiative such as Industrie 4.0, on which several industrial enterprises, research institutes, associations and the federal government of Germany are cooperating. The time constraint becomes even more pronounced if you consider that all of these participants are representatives of companies, organizations and institutes which must often deal with heavy competition on a day-to-day basis. Just the collaboration alone between the three industrial associations BITKOM, VDMA and ZVEI represents the first cooperative activity ever of its kind. That makes the results achieved in this short span of time even more astounding. At the same time, however, things are moving much too slowly for an initiative of such significance and in an environment of such internet speed. This chapter will describe the development of the initiative and look at the collaboration involved, the structure of the platform and its central fields of work, its turnover to the federal government and initial concrete results, including international activity.