The network

In April 2000, the Mechatronics Competence Network in Eastern Bavaria was founded as a public-private partnership on the basis of a cooperation agreement. Since then, the Network has developed in a very positive manner, exerting a strong attraction on potential partners. Today, the Network consists of over 30 companies, two universities of applied sciences, the vocational school, the adult education centre, the Industry and Commerce Chamber, and the business development corporation of the Cham administrative district as the project management.

Main activities

The core areas of the Competence Network are training, further education, research and development, and marketing. For each of these areas, a board of promoters has been created in which each involved company is represented and in which the strategic and operative goals of the Network are determined. The project management moderates the regular meetings and prepares and follows them up as far as content and organisation are concerned. Through the boards of promoters, the companies plan joint projects and special measures for their core area, exchange information and experience, and discuss and make suggestions for improving the Network. This organisational structure, supplemented by a steering committee made up of representatives of all involved companies, allows all members to participate directly in the development and definition of the Network.
In the areas of R&D and qualification, the project management has introduced various innovative measures to promote cooperation between Network members and universities, a relationship previously often characterised by reserve. This has helped increase the commitment of university graduates to the region and to Network companies, thus preventing the commonly observed brain drain from rural areas.

The technological focus

The mix of industries represented in our Network offers great advantages to our members due to the large variety of technological competencies to which they have access, such as mechanical engineering, microsystems technology, materials technology, software development, electronics, metrology, control and feedback control systems, rapid prototyping, plastics engineering, automotive engineering, precision engineering, and logistics.

Highlights

Cooperation within the Network has increasingly intensified relations between the member companies. The fact that today, almost half of the companies are willing to exchange internal data when necessary, is an especially encouraging result. The positive experience companies have gained in joint R&D projects promotes further cooperation. The fact that several joint R&D projects are currently running is proof of the growing confidence companies have in the Network. In one of these projects, an 18 metre long and 4 metre high four-legged walking robot is being developed, which will be converted to a "dragon" and used as a long-term prop in a local theatre festival. Another important component of our services is our innovation management. Every year, the project management arranges innovation workshops in cooperation with innovation consulting and transfer institutions. Lectures, tours of company premises, and good practice examples inform the network members about concrete possibilities of joint development of product, service and process innovations. The focus of these workshops is on regional exchange of experience between small and medium-sized enterprises (not only Network members), but information is exchanged between SMEs, large-scale enterprises, and academic research institutions as well.