Giengen

Giengen (full name: Giengen an der Brenz) is a former Free Imperial City in eastern Baden-Württemberg near the border with Bavaria in southern Germany. The town is located in the district of Heidenheim at the eastern edge of the Swabian Alb, about 30 kilometers northeast of Ulm on the Brenz River.

Giengen is today a dynamic community and home to several well-known companies, such as Margarete Steiff GmbH, creator of the teddy bear, and Albert Ziegler GmbH, a European leader in fire department equipment.

Positioned on the Nuremberg-Ulm-Constance route, one of the main feeder routes of the Compostella Trail, Giengen is visited each year by an increasing number of walking pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostella.

History

The first documentary evidence of the town was contained in a chronicle of the monastery of Peterhausen that reported on the death in battle in 1078 of margrave Diepold II von Vohburg, lord of Giengen. In 1147, Adele, daughter of Diepold III, was married to Emperor Frederick I Barbarosa but was divorced after a few years due to childlessness. Barbarosa was an occasional visitor and resident and it was probably during his stay in 1171 that he granted market rights and the unicorn coat of arms to the town. Still referred to as a villa (village) in a document dated 1216, Giengen had seemingly attained city (civitas) status by 1252.

BSH Hausgeräte

BSH Hausgeräte GmbH, (or BSH Home Appliances) is the largest manufacturer of home appliances in Europe and one of the leading companies in the sector worldwide. The group stemmed from a joint venture set up in 1967 between Robert Bosch GmbH (Stuttgart) and Siemens AG (Munich) and posted annual sales of 11.45 billion euros in the year 2014. Today, BSH operates 42 factories in 13 countries in Europe, the USA, Latin America and Asia. Together with a global network of sales and customer service firms, the BSH conglomerate today is made up of about 80 companies in 50 countries, with a total workforce of more than 53,000 people. In September 2014, Robert Bosch GmbH agreed to purchase Siemens' 50% stake in the joint venture for 3 billion euros.

The BSH product range covers a wide spectrum. It includes large home appliances for cooking, dishwashing, laundry (washing and drying), refrigeration and freezing, as well as a multitude of small appliances, such as fully automatic espresso machines, floor care and hot water appliances (consumer products).

Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0, Industrie 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution, is a collective term embracing a number of contemporary automation, data exchange and manufacturing technologies. It had been defined as 'a collective term for technologies and concepts of value chain organization' which draws together Cyber-Physical Systems, the Internet of Things and the Internet of Services.

Industry 4.0 facilitates the vision and execution of a "Smart Factory". Within the modular structured Smart Factories of Industry 4.0, cyber-physical systems monitor physical processes, create a virtual copy of the physical world and make decentralized decisions. Over the Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans in real time, and via the Internet of Services, both internal and cross-organizational services are offered and utilized by participants of the value chain.

Name

The term "Industrie 4.0" originates from a project in the high-tech strategy of the German government, which promotes the computerization of manufacturing. The first industrial revolution mobilised the mechanization of production using water and steam power. The second industrial revolution then introduced mass production with the help of electric power, followed by the digital revolution and the use of electronics and IT to further automate production.