Public discourse about Industry 4.0,
the fourth stage of the industrial revolution, is growing vast and
rapidly. Almost no day for the last three weeks that the topic was
not mentioned in the news in Germany. Working groups are set-up, analyses are
being made, strategies are defined.
For those of you who haven't come
across the term yet: Industry 4.0 means the ubiquitous support of all
industrial process and all machinery by IT technology. What has long
been discussed under headings like convergence, smart factory,
Internet of Things, process innovation etc. is now subsumed in the catchy concept of
Industry 4.0.
Germany is on the forefront of
strategy-building regarding Industry 4.0. This may seem only logical
given the fact that Germany is a key global producer and exporter of
best-of-class machinery of all kinds. Staying on top of technological
progress and driving the new wave of innovation that comes with
Industry 4.0 is almost a must for an industrial player of the kind of
Germany.
The German government had taken
leadership more than a year go putting in place an expert group to
develop a strategy with recommendations for actions on Industry 4.0.
The group's report was published last autumn and is available in German on the website
of the German ministry for Education and Research. Henning Kagermann,
former CEO of SAP, played a leading role in the expert group and is a
major thinker and strategist dealing with the topic area.
Academia and Industry in Germany have
also taken up the catch phrase. The German industry association
BITKOM has made Industry 4.0 the key topic for the trade showHannover Messe taking place this week. The engineering associations
VDE and VDI dedicate special working groups to the topic preparing
the grounds for German industry to be a global leader on Industry
4.0. And for academia the highly renown Professor Wahlster, guru onartificial intelligence at the University of Saarland, has developed in the key spokesman and thinker on the topic.
I am sure that Industry 4.0 will shape
the next decade. It is not just a sexy catch word that will soon
disappear. Far from that. It is the concept level where many things
ongoing today come together. It covers the full spectrum of our
economy – from Human Resources to Automation. It is where
technologies meet, get integrated, be it into huge machinery or
smallest devices. It's IT being embedded everywhere. So it goes
deep... And it has the potential for boosting innovation.
Industry 4.0 is, for sure, also a key
topic for standardisation. To a large extend it is all about
standards. Total automation requires standards and interoperability.
Things need to work together. Many standards for Industry 4.0 are
already available. In order to be able to close gaps first, standards
bodies also get ready to address the topic in an effective and
efficient way.
What I see is that more systems
standardisation work will be done – In order to provide sample
infrastructures and identify gaps. Smart Grid, eMobility – all of
this goes into this direction. And end-to-end scenarios and use cases
are required. Standards bodies will want to promote the uptake of new
technologies and standards and will, therefore, address the topic in
such a way so that end-to-end scenarios are available.
And standards bodies will have to
collaborate even more because standards from different technology
areas need to come together. I see in particular IEC and CENELEC in
Europe which need to collaborate closely with the leading global ICT
standards bodies. This requires a new, integrative approach. New
trust and relationship building. And new processes for collaboration
across boundaries.
In my opinion Industry 4.0 has a huge
potential regarding innovation. It will have major impact on
standardisation, on how standardisation is done – and in which
bodies. It will provide the grounds for the success path for embedded
technologies. Everybody working in standardisation can be looking
forward with excitement of Industry 4.0 to evolve further.
