As founding director of SmartFactory-KL, the world's first manufacturer-independent smart factory for networked production, Zühlke established a groundbreaking demonstration and research platform. This became a model for numerous international Industry 4.0 initiatives, including the Swiss Smart Factory at the Switzerland Innovation Park Biel/Bienne (SIPBB), which was founded in 2017 by DFKI Alumni Dr. Dominic Gorecky.
Prof. Zühlke headed the industrial IT systems research field at the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) for over two decades and was Professor of Production Automation at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern. His work continues to have a significant influence on the research, standardisation and industrial implementation of cyber-physical production systems.