A complex situation

Germany as a business location is currently asking a lot of its companies. Above all, key officials in our government do not seem to realize that both the state's revenues and those of its citizens depend on functioning companies - i.e., those that can also produce. In view of this, among other things, dragging out the decision on the continued operation of the remaining nuclear power plants is a high-stakes ideological game.

One approach to explaining why this is so was provided by a series of lectures at the ZVO Surface Days in Leipzig (report on page 30), which looked at the behavior of complex systems. Instead of a clear cause-effect relationship, control loops determine the behavior of such a system, which is why changes often also result in undesirable side effects. Every company represents such a complex system, which must be in equilibrium in order to remain controllable. If, for example, the general conditions change too much, a transition into a chaotic system can take place. As a result, the system reacts unpredictably - even to control inputs that would have been goal-oriented in a stable state. If, as a result of the current energy crisis, a sufficiently large number of companies now enter chaotic systems, the German economy as a complex system as a whole may also be thrown into turmoil. Interventions on the part of policymakers would no longer have a targeted effect. Our country would be rudderless until the system returns to a stable state on its own.

That's why it could soon be considered a dramatic mistake that our government has not really pulled out all the stops available to mitigate the energy crisis. After all, many years of a dreamlike energy policy cannot be compensated by passionate defiance and ideological obsession. At the ZVO Surface Days, it also became apparent that some companies no longer hope for the government's ability to find solutions, but have instead begun to secure their energy supply themselves - for example, by switching energy sources and installing gas or oil tanks. In the current situation, securing production should take priority over the question of which energy source is least harmful to the environment. Otherwise, our industry and with it our prosperity could vanish into thin air during the next few years. And whether the environment is helped in any way globally if parts of our production move to emerging markets is highly doubtful. In this sense: Do what is necessary!

In the October issue of mo, you will again find numerous reports on ways to increase efficiency and save energy in surface technology!