Open Industry 4.0 Alliance announced

Balluff, Gebhardt, Pepperl+Fuchs, Schmidtsche Schack, Samson and WIKA have already registered their interest in coming on board. All members have made a joint commitment to create a standardised open ecosystem for operating highly automated factories and process engineering plants that incorporates logistics and services.

"The open architecture of the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance meets all the requirements of the process industry," says Matthias Altendorf, CEO of the Endress+Hauser Group, adding: "It is built on standards, ensures transparency across all business processes and guarantees the integrity of systems, enabling operators of process engineering plants to leverage the potential of Industry 4.0."

The open, standards-based offering of the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance includes four modules — Device Connectivity, Edge, Operator Cloud, and Cloud Central — plus an associated service offering. Device Connectivity establishes the connection to the machines and sensors. Edge is the central node for all the important and locally necessary functions in the factory. Operator Cloud is the central node in the customer’s company that an open layer and supports all enterprise-centric functions and applications. Finally, Cloud Central enables the bidirectional exchange of data between companies, such as master data and measurement data from calibrations, as well as information including technical documentation and repair manuals.

The first proofs of concept were completed in 2018, with adaptable and flexible matrix production at KUKA. The aim is to produce additional proofs of concept from members and their customers by mid-2019. The founding members are preparing their first results for the second half of 2019.