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Mechanical Engineering and Industry 4.0

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Handbook Industry 4.0

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Abstract

Mechanical and plant engineering, one of Europe’s key industries, has always stood for a constant process of change, adaptation and improvement. Whether with the introduction of the steam engine or the first mechanical loom (First Industrial Revolution), the first electric machines with assembly line production based on the division of labor (Second Industrial Revolution), the use of IT and the connected automation (Third Industrial Revolution) or now with the intelligent and interconnected digital factory (Fourth Industrial Revolution, Industry 4.0), mechanical engineering has always been an essential driver and addressee of change. By now, mechanical engineering is again at the forefront of a new era in industry. No other sector is currently investing more than mechanical engineering in digital technologies (almost 4% of total turnover).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Cf. Ernst & Young, “Industrie 4.0 im deutschen Mittelstand” (2018), p. 9, available at https://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/ey-industrie-4-0-im-deutschen-mittelstand-befragungsergebnisse-2018/$FILE/ey-industrie-4-0-im-deutschen-mittelstand-befragungsergebnisse-2018.pdf (as of 26 January 2019).

  2. 2.

    Cf. joint study by maexpartners and VDMA AG Großanlagenbau, “Potenziale von Industrie 4.0 im Großanlagenbau” (September 2017), p. 4.

  3. 3.

    Press release of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (08.06.2018), available at https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Pressemitteilungen/2018/20180608-ausbildung-industrie-4-0-zupacken-statt-zuwarten-in-der-metall-und-elektroindustrie.html (Effective: 04.01.2021).

  4. 4.

    Cf. Monitoring-Report Wirtschaft Digital, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (October 2017), p. 39, available at https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Downloads/C-D/digitalisierungsprofil-maschinenbau.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4, (Effective: 04.01.2021).

  5. 5.

    Cf. Plattform Industrie 4.0 result paper “Industrie 4.0 – wie das Recht Schritt hält” (October 2016), available at https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Publikationen/Industrie/industrie-4-0-wie-das-recht-schritt-haelt.html (Effective: 04.01.2021).

  6. 6.

    Legal magazines, e.g., InTer – Zeitschrift zum Innovations- und Technikrecht account for this circumstance already.

  7. 7.

    Cf. Speech of the former EU-commissioner for digital economy, Günther Oettinger, https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Hannover-Messe-Oettinger-fordert-einheitlichen-digitalen-Binnenmarkt-fuer-EU-2602252.html?wt_mc=rss.ho.beitrag.rdf (Effective: 04.01.2021).

  8. 8.

    Cf. news release of the Bundestag and the chancellor, in which a property of data is demanded https://www.bundesregierung.de/Content/DE/Pressemitteilungen/BPA/2017/03/2017-03-18-podcast.html (Effective: 04.01.2021).

  9. 9.

    Der Wert persönlicher Daten – Ist Datenhandel der bessere Datenschutz (the value of personal data—is data trade the better data protection?), study commissioned by Council of Experts for consumer’s questions at the BMJV, June 2017, available at http://www.svr-verbraucherfragen.de/wp-content/uploads/Open_Knowledge_Foundation_Studie.pdf, S. 16ff. (Effective: 04.01.2021).

  10. 10.

    About the whole and cf. result paper Industrie 4.0 – Kartellrechtliche Betrachtungen, Plattform Industrie 4.0 (Industry 4.0—cartel law considerations, Plattform Industrie 4.0) (April 2018), pp. 17 et seq., available at https://www.plattform-i40.de/I40/Redaktion/DE/Downloads/Publikation/hm-2018-kartellrecht-ag4.html (Effective: 04.01.2021).

  11. 11.

    About antitrust relevance of data sovereignty cf. just “Competition Law and Data” of the french Autorité de la concurrence and the German Federal Cartel Office (May 2016) as well as BKArtA “Big Data und Wettbewerb” (2017).

  12. 12.

    Result paper Industrie 4.0 – Kartellrechtliche Betrachtungen, Plattform Industrie 4.0 (April 2018), (Industry 4.0—cartel law considerations, Plattform Industrie 4.0) (April 2018), p. 21, available at https://www.plattform-i40.de/I40/Redaktion/DE/Downloads/Publikation/hm-2018-kartellrecht-ag4.html (Effective: 04.01.2021).

  13. 13.

    Extensive remarks (e.g. about the access right for responsible authorities for regulatory control purposes) available at http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-4227_de.htm (Effective: 04.01.2021).

  14. 14.

    Principles of data minimization must be considered, Art. 5 (1) lit. c) GDPR respectively the Privacy by Design and Privacy by Default, Art. 25 GDPR will have to be considered.

  15. 15.

    Cf. also: Stellungnahme 5/2014 (WP216) zu Anonymisierungstechniken der Artikel-29-Datenschutzgruppe (10.04.2014), including guideline (appendix, pp. 32 et seq.).

  16. 16.

    Cf. https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/data-transfers-outside-eu/adequacy-protection-personal-data-non-eu-countries_de. an adequacy decision exists for Andorra, Argentina, Canada, Faroe-Islands, Guernsey, Israel, Isle of Man, Jersey, New Zealand, Switzerland, Uruguay and the USA (limited to the regulations of the Privacy Shield) (Effective: 04.01.2021).

  17. 17.

    https://ec.europa.eu/growth/single-market/goods/free-movement-sectors/liability-defective-products_en.

  18. 18.

    Cf. statement ORGALIM https://www.orgalim.eu/position-papers/orgalime-comments-evaluation-product-liability-directive.

  19. 19.

    About copyleft as a whole: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.de.html.

  20. 20.

    A collection of OSS license models is available at https://opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical.

  21. 21.

    Cf. only association statement “AGB-Recht für Unternehmen modernisieren – Wirtschaftsstandort Deutschland stärken” (Modernise GTC law for businesses—strengthen the industrial base Germany), available at https://www.vdma.org/v2viewer/-/v2article/render/26919255 (Effective: 04.01.2021).

  22. 22.

    https://www.bmjv.de/SharedDocs/Artikel/DE/2015/02092015_AGB_Recht.html.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. VDMA, Frankfurt, Germany

    Daniel van Geerenstein

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  1. Daniel van Geerenstein
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Correspondence to Daniel van Geerenstein .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Unit for Mining, Environmental and European Law, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

    Walter Frenz

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van Geerenstein, D. (2022). Mechanical Engineering and Industry 4.0. In: Frenz, W. (eds) Handbook Industry 4.0. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-64448-5_28

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-64448-5_28

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