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Smart Assets

Shaping the Future of Industry 4.0
Smart Assets is a forward-thinking project that redefines asset management for the digital age. Through the integration of the Asset Administration Shell, this initiative brings together leading expertise to improve industrial efficiency, interoperability, and sustainability.

The Smart Assets Vision: Bringing Digitalization to Every Industrial Asset

The Smart Assets project focuses on optimizing efficiency and interoperability across various industrial sectors by establishing standardized digital representations of assets. Through the introduction of the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) – the cornerstone of data exchange in Industry 4.0 – Smart Assets enhances transparency, traceability, and seamless integration across the entire value chain.


By adopting the AAS as the de facto industry standard for Digital Twins, the project creates a new framework for revolutionizing asset management. This enables real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, and proactive decision-making, ensuring that companies can streamline their operations, reduce downtime, and increase overall efficiency.

Core Components of Smart Assets

1. Asset Administration Shell (AAS) Integration Framework

At the heart of Smart Assets is the AAS Integration Framework, a tailored solution for seamlessly integrating digital asset representations into existing operations. This framework ensures smooth data exchange between assets and IT systems, enabling real-time monitoring and operational transparency.

  • What It Does: Establishes standardized communication protocols for seamless data exchange and asset integration.
  • Why It Matters: AAS enables better coordination across the value chain, facilitating traceability and transparency, which are crucial for modern industrial operations.

Smart Assets introduces an innovative toolchain that automates the creation of digital representations for industrial systems. This reduces the need for manual intervention and speeds up the process of digitizing assets, allowing for more efficient lifecycle management.

  • What It Does: Automates the generation of digital twins for assets, improving operational visibility.
  • Why It Matters: Automated processes save time and resources, ensuring consistent data across the entire asset lifecycle.

The project develops a robust Interoperability Framework that ensures AAS-enabled components can communicate effectively with existing systems like MES, ERP, and other proprietary platforms. This standardized data exchange simplifies integration and improves the overall connectivity of industrial ecosystems.

  • What It Does: Supports seamless communication between different platforms, enhancing system-wide integration.
  • Why It Matters: By standardizing data protocols, the framework ensures that both legacy and new machines can work together efficiently, reducing integration challenges.

In today’s digital landscape, data security is essential. Smart Assets focuses on implementing secure communication channels, encryption protocols, and access control mechanisms to protect sensitive information and ensure that data remains safe throughout its lifecycle.

  • What It Does: Provides secure data exchange mechanisms for AAS-enabled systems.
  • Why It Matters: Secure data ensures integrity, reduces risks, and builds trust in digital transformation processes.

The Objectives

Enhancing Efficiency, Integration, and Innovation

The primary goal of Smart Assets is to implement the Asset Administration Shell, which optimizes asset management, integration, transparency, and traceability in Industry 4.0. This framework streamlines operations, reduces downtime, improves maintenance, and increases efficiency – leading to significant cost savings.

Why AAS Matters

Optimization By standardizing communication and data exchange, AAS enables seamless integration across different systems, improving coordination within the industrial value chain.
Real-Time Monitoring AAS provides a digital twin of each asset, allowing companies to monitor their assets in real time, anticipate maintenance needs, and make informed decisions based on real-time data.
Competitive Advantage Implementing AAS gives component suppliers a competitive edge, positioning them as leaders in innovation and helping them comply with emerging legal requirements for sustainability and the circular economy.

The Partners Behind Smart Assets

SMC: The leading expert with a passion for industrial automation

Founded in Tokyo, Japan back in 1959, SMC brings not only decades of experience but as well its commitment to sustainable growth of technological innovations through the supply of automatic control equipment. This enables to bring to the project a real-world, scalable solution for industries worldwide. SmartAssets project as well provide the company the opportunity to deepen into that sustainable growth as well as meeting the upcoming legal requirements set by the European Commission for the circular economy.

Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW): Advancing Research and Developmentt

ZHAW is a key academic partner, providing cutting-edge research in the fields of artificial intelligence, mechatronics, and digital twins. Their contributions ensure that Smart Assets is built on the latest technological advancements and continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in asset management.

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objective partner: Pioneering Digital Transformation

objective partner is known for its innovative approach to digital transformation, particularly in the context of Industry 4.0. op specializes in integrating IT systems and providing end-to-end solutions, ensuring that Smart Assets can be seamlessly adopted by industries looking to modernize their asset management systems.

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How Smart Assets Fits into the Bigger Picture: Industry 4.0 and Beyond

The Smart Assets project is a key part of the ongoing global transformation towards Industry 4.0, where the digital and physical worlds merge. By digitizing asset management, the project enables industries to move towards fully connected, automated, and intelligent production processes. This shift not only increases productivity but also enhances the ability of companies to respond to changes in the market and external pressures, such as supply chain disruptions or environmental regulations.


The benefits of Smart Assets extend far beyond individual companies. As industries adopt AAS-enabled systems, the collective intelligence of interconnected assets will grow, creating new opportunities for collaboration, innovation, and sustainable development.

Sustainability and Smart Assets

Driving Responsible Consumption and Production

Smart Assets plays a pivotal role in promoting responsible consumption and production, aligning with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 9 & 12). By improving the efficiency and lifecycle management of industrial assets, Smart Assets helps reduce waste and optimize the use of resources. This not only benefits individual companies by reducing costs but also contributes to a more sustainable industrial ecosystem.

Key sustainability contributions:

Circular Economy Supports the recycling and repurposing of assets, reducing the ecological footprint.
Energy Management Enables better energy usage tracking and optimization through real-time data.
Environmental Compliance Helps companies meet stricter environmental regulations by providing detailed insights into asset performance and resource use.

Get in Touch to Learn More

Curious about how Smart Assets is shaping the future of asset management? Whether you’re an industry leader, a researcher, or just intrigued by the possibilities of Industry 4.0, we’re here to provide you with all the information you need.

Join us on the journey to a smarter, more connected industrial future.

Contact us today to explore how Smart Assets can transform the way you manage and optimize your assets.