The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is the leading organization for institutes of applied research in Europe, undertaking contract research on behalf of industry, the service sector and the government. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft was founded in 1949 and is a recognized non-profit organization. Its members include well known companies and private patrons who contribute to the promotion of its application-oriented policy.

Commissioned by customers in industry, it provides rapid, economical and immediately applicable solutions to technical and organizational problems. Within the framework of the European Union's technology programs, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is actively involved in industrial consortiums which seek technical solutions to improve the competitiveness of European industry.

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft also assumes a major role in strategic research: Commissioned and funded by Federal and Laender ministries and governments, the organization undertakes future-oriented research projects which contribute to the development of innovations in spheres of major public concern and in key technologies. Typical research fields include communications, energy, microelectronics, manufacturing, transport and the environment. The global alignment of industry and research has made international collaboration imperative. Furthermore, affiliate Fraunhofer institutes in Europe, in the USA and in Asia ensure contact to the most important current and future economic markets.

At present, the organization maintains 80 research establishments at 40 locations throughout Germany. A staff of some 13,000, the majority of whom are qualified scientists and engineers, generate the annual research volume of more than about one billion euro. Of this amount, about 900 million euro is derived from contract research. Research contracts on behalf of industry and publicly financed research projects generate approximately two thirds of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft's contract revenue. One third is contributed by the Federal and Länder governments, as a means of enabling the institutes to work on solutions to problems that are expected to attain economic and social relevance in the next five to ten years. Fraunhofer scientists specialize in complex research tasks involving a broad spectrum of research fields. When required, several institutes pool their interdisciplinary expertise to develop system solutions.

The Fraunhofer Institute Manufacturing Engineering and Automation –IPA- expertise covers software development and integration methodology, equipment communication, equipment integration, logistics, simulation, scheduling, and evaluation of software and devices.

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft’s Previous experience relevant to the tasks that have been attributed

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft has achieved broad experience in the fields of R&D Management and Business Development since the early 1980s and was involved in more than 50 successfully completed European projects in this field. In particular the company has know-how in analyzing and redesigning of business processes and in the development, introduction and application of strategic enabling information technologies, management systems and methodologies. It is involved in various standardizing and industrial guideline activities with national and international bodies in the field of R&D, manufacturing and organization.

Regarding task 3.3 (Gathering Technical requirements of iSURF Architecture) Fraunhofer can provide a very broad and advanced know how in logistical network optimization. Fraunhofer knows very well the requirements of the European OEMs as well as the requirements of SMEs in industrial networks.

Fraunhofer IPA accomplished numerous projects in the automotive industry for companies of all sizes. Fraunhofer is also a leading partner in various research projects, and will provide cutting edge knowledge for collaborative planning and collaborative execution solutions from projects like e.g. “ILIPT”, an actual running EU project, where Fraunhofer has a leading role. ILIPT’s ambitious project aims is to create a pure BTO (build-to-order) production of cars within a very short delivery time and with 100% reliable due dates, and thus requires a new approach for the planning and execution processes of the automotive supply chain. Build-to-Order requires high flexibility with respect to production and logistics. The entire value chain has to be able to react immediately to customer requirements and adjust its capacities to short-notice market changes. However, the logistics and production flexibility depends very much on product structure and product flexibility. A significant constituent of these new processes are new ICT (information and communication technology) systems that need to be supplied by the different stakeholders – vehicle manufacturers, assembly plants, plants of first and second tiers. These ICT systems must have new functions to perform the planning and execution tasks in a collaborative and efficient manner.

Regarding tasks 4.4, 4.5 and 5.3 (Tools to Wrap Legacy Applications through Web Services, Security and Privacy of Interoperability Service Utility, Semantically enriched Data Integrator Module) Fraunhofer IPA has extensive knowledge and experience in service oriented architecture (SOA), web services, as well as security and privacy of interoperability service utility, and will provide cutting edge knowledge for SOA and web services from projects like e.g. “MasMicro”, an actual running EU project, which emphasizes on building a Web Service Technology-Based Factory IT-Landscape with WebObjects. For the research project Fraunhofer IPA is implementing a service oriented architecture based on Web service technologies with Apple WebObjects. This include XML technologies, various communication protocols (e.g. HTTP), message specifications (SOAP and its extensions), technologies to describe (WSDL), to discover (e.g. UDDI), to secure, and to manage Web services and others to perform additional tasks.