The long-time CTO Dr. Dominik Rohrmus transferred to GAIA-X European Association for Data and Cloud AISBL as of 01.07.2021 and takes over the function as COO in Brussels.

In the past five years at LNI 4.0, Dominik Rohrmus has primarily been driving the 120 industrial use cases and the five testbeds for Industrie 4.0, which are important for standardization. He is on fire for SMEs and has been significantly involved in the digital transformation of hundreds of SMEs. In addition, he has been a major contributor to association work as well as collaboration with Plattform Industrie 4.0 and the Standardization Council Industrie 4.0.

His unconventional thinking as well as his cross-sector industry expertise have created a broad basis for LNI 4.0.

Anja Simon has taken over the CTO role for LNI 4.0 as of July 1, 2021. Anja Simon was previously responsible for research and development projects in the field of digital twins and human-machine interfaces.

After receiving her diploma in technical cybernetics and automation technology from HTWK Leipzig, she began her career at Siemens. Parallel to her work at Siemens, she earned a European business degree and additionally qualified as a systemic consultant.

Anja Simon's career has taken her from large-scale operational projects for industrial customers to central management tasks for global shared service centers, responsibility for international IT service outsourcing deals to initiating and managing cross-company digitization projects.

Industrial production is becoming increasingly networked and also more intelligent. But for this to be possible, machines must speak the same language. The IEC 62382 standard defines general principles of the digital factory framework.

By Michael A. Mullane

Until Napoleon's army came across a large boulder hidden beneath the foundations of a building in the Nile Delta in 1799, no one knew how to read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Thanks to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, as the boulder was later called, scientists were able to use the ancient Greek inscription to decipher the hieroglyphics also found on it. 

Something similar is currently happening in "smart" factories, where machines that often "speak" different languages use the digital counterparts of the Rosetta Stone to communicate with each other and exchange information. 

To the full german article

VDE DKE and the Chinese Instrumentation Technology & Economy Institute (ITEI) have renewed their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on their cooperation. The digitalization of industrial manufacturing and standardization are the main focus of the agreement. 

ITEI bundles competencies on standardization, research, training and testing in the field of industrial automation. VDE DKE and ITEI have maintained a close exchange for over ten years. Initially, this exchange took place in an informal framework, but since 2014 the cooperation has been based on an MoU between the two organizations. 

Since the first MoU was signed, experts from ITEI and DKE have been in close exchange on various Industrie 4.0 topics. For example, the experts developed a joint roadmap on the topic of predictive maintenance, which was transferred to a standardization application at IEC/TC 65 supported by both sides. 

In a digital signing ceremony, the MoU was signed on April 08, 2021, with a new focus on the digitization of industrial manufacturing and standardization. After a welcoming speech by Mr. Guo Chenguang (Deputy Director General of the Standards Innovation Department, SAC), DKE Managing Director Michael Teigeler and ITEI Director Prof Ouyang Jinsong acknowledged the achieved results. 

Afterwards, ITEI Deputy Director of Standards and Test Center Ding Lu and DKE SCI 4.0 Managing Director Dr- Jens Gayko gave a deeper insight into the technical topics of the past years and an outlook into the agreed work program. This work program includes a wide range of topics such as machine-readable and machine-interpretable standards, Industrie 4.0, functional safety and artificial intelligence applications in industrial automation. 

In conclusion, both parties emphasized to resume face-to-face exchanges in the field after the conclusion of the Corona pandemic. 

Germany and Korea strengthen their cooperation in Industrie 4.0. On 4th of December 20, Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier met the Korean Minister for Small and Medium Enterprises and Start-ups, Young-sun Park, in a signing ceremony between Labs Network Industrie 4.0 (LNI 4.0) and Korean Smart Manufacturing Office (KOSMO).

The LNI 4.0 association was founded out of the Platform Industrie 4.0 and has signed a cooperation agreement with the Korean Smart Manufacturing Office (KOSMO). Together, the signatories will promote research and development of Industrie 4.0 solutions, which will primarily benefit small and medium-sized enterprises.

Federal Minister Altmaier: "The joint agreement concluded today is another milestone for us to flank our activities in the field of Industrie 4.0 internationally and to network with innovative partners. Both sides will benefit equally from the intensified cooperation. For us, Korea is already one of the most important industrial and technology partners in Asia and an important value partner with whom we share many similarities.

Click here for the complete press release of the BMWi.

The Artificial Intelligence standardization roadmap of DIN and DKE will be presented at the Digital Summit on 30.11.2020. The results will be presented on 07.12.2020. Specialist workshops will accompany the topic in January/February 2021 and are intended to provide a deeper understanding, lead to discussions and initiate new projects.

The DKE has completed the Artificial Intelligence Standardization Roadmap together with DIN on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi). The roadmap provides recommendations for action for standardization in the field of artificial intelligence and thus implements a key measure of the German government's AI strategy.

Around 300 experts from industry, science, the public sector and civil society have developed the document together. A high-ranking steering group chaired by Prof. Wolfgang Wahlster coordinated and accompanied the development. The roadmap provides a comprehensive overview of the status quo, requirements and challenges as well as the need for standardization on seven key topics related to artificial intelligence: fundamentals, ethics/responsible AI; quality, conformity assessment and certification; IT security in AI systems; industrial automation; mobility and logistics; and AI in medicine.

The AI standardization roadmap will be published and presented on the occasion of the Digital Summit of the Federal Government on November 30, 2020. All information and the registration for the virtual Digital Summit can be found at https://www.de.digital/DIGITAL/Navigation/DE/Digital-Gipfel/digital-gipfel.html. In addition, the online presentation of the results of the Standardization Roadmap AI will take place on December 7, 2020. Further online technical workshops in January/February 2021 will provide a deeper understanding, lead to discussions and initiate new projects.

You can download the German Standardization Roadmap AI here.

The German and Japanese partners agreed to create a common future vision of smart manufacturing standardization and establish a mechanism of proactive information exchange and to work transparently together. Furthermore, the partners agreed to examine substantive areas in standardization Industrie 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), based on concrete conceptual work e.g. the elaboration of the various Usage Views to achieve a common understanding on the topic of use cases.

These substantive areas were described and published as first edition of the common strategy in 2017. Today, based on the past activities, achievements and significantly changing global circumstances, both partners agreed to “upgrade” the collaboration as the second stage of the common strategy. The White Paper is available for Download here. 

Security technology is both cumbersome and traditional - VDE Congress proves the contrary

The third edition of the IEC 61508 series is being eagerly awaited because there have been several innovations since the second edition and the environment has changed: After the networking, which is advancing and continues to move minds, the use of artificial intelligence technologies and the application of the block chain will be discussed. In addition, the established development methods are also questioned. 

In addition to the tangible questions on standardization, these issues will also be discussed and possible solutions will be presented:

• Agile methods and secure systems. A contradiction in terms?
• Can the management of functional safety be safeguarded in the future by block-chain techniques?
• Recent experiences with hacker attacks require an even stronger coordination of functional security with IT security.
• When security chains are viewed as a whole and their failure probabilities are estimated, mechanical elements repeatedly turn out to be the points that are most often discussed. Opinions in the community on how to deal with this are still quite controversial.
• The inclusion of artificial intelligence in security systems seems to be inevitable for the future, but nobody knows yet how to provide proof of safety.

VDE would like to present these topics to you, discuss them with you and look forward to your opinion.

Further details (hygiene concept, program etc.) can be found on the event page.

In order to advance the goal of a broad market introduction of the Asset Administration Shell (AAL) and to serve as a central contact point for international companies and partners, the next important step is now being taken: The foundation of a user organization by ZVEI and VDMA. 

The concept of the Asset Administration Shell was first presented in a ZVEI publication about five years ago. A lot has happened since then. The idea has been pushed forward in countless meetings and workshops, there has been brooding over definitions and specifications and at times intense wrangling.  

You can find the complete article from the atp magazine here online. 

The white paper sheds light on the common Sino-German view on functional safety issues in the Industrie 4.0/Intelligent Manufacturing environment. It explains the basic concept of traditional technical safety, which used to be based on mechanical and electronic technology. The paper elaborates on the rising complexity and interconnection among systems, outlining how the overall infrastructure has become more susceptible to internal failures and cyberattacks. To this extent, the paper analyses existing standards, specifications and provides recommendations to achieve safety for Industrie 4.0/Intelligent Manufacturing. It concludes that existing international standards need to be interpreted and amended to cover new issues and hazards. It also refers to the potential integration of safety and security.

Background

By facilitating the harmonization of key standards at the international level, the Sino-German Standardisation Cooperation enables industry and consumers alike to integrate into seamless modern global value chains. Within five years of cooperation, both sides were able to reach joint agreements on a variety of topics at the international level and handed in joint standard proposals.

The Sino-German Whitepaper on Functional Safety is jointly elaborated by the technical experts involved in the Sub-Working Group Industrie 4.0/Intelligent Manufacturing (SWG I4.0/IM) of the Sino-German Standardization Cooperation Committee. The SWG I4.0/IM is technically led by the Standardization Council Industrie 4.0 (SCI 4.0) and its Chinese partner National Intelligent Manufacturing Standardization Administration Group (IMSG).

The cooperation is politically steered by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the Standardization Administration of China (SAC) and the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi).

As a next step, the technical experts will start discussions on the effect given by emerging and highly innovative technologies such as Artificial Intelligence that are set to touch many aspects of functional safety.

The White Paper is available for Download here 

"Industrie 4.0-The Reference Architecture Model RAMI 4.0 & the Industrie 4.0 component", the English translation of the guidance paper "Basiswissen RAMI 4.0" is published by Beuth Verlag. 

With the Reference Architecture Model Industrie 4.0 (RAMI4.0), different aspects are brought together in a common model (communication layer, life cycle of plants or products as well as automation and IT level) for the first time. With this guide, the reader receives a summary of various documents on the topic of Industrie 4.0 for the first time: a red thread, so to say, which relates the contents of these documents to each other. The book provides the technical basics for the realization of Industrie 4.0 value-added networks, in which objects of the physical world are described as I4.0 components for their use in the information world according to the Reference Architecture Model Industrie 4.0 (RAMI 4.0).

Dr Jens Gayko was elected as the new chair of the CEN-CENELEC-ETSI Coordination Group on Smart Manufacturing (CEN-CLC-ETSI SMa-CG).

In the context of the constitution of the CEN-CENELEC-ETSI Coordination Group on Smart Manufacturing (CEN-CLC-ETSI SMa-CG), Dr. Jens Gayko (Managing Director SCI 4.0) was elected as the new chair of the coordination body. The associated secretariat is located at DIN and is supervised by Anna Petschulies.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is perhaps the biggest future topic. Together with German companies, research institutions, technology experts and associations, the Standardization Council Industrie 4.0, together with DKE and DIN, would like to create a national expert council to discuss and implement technologies and fields of application of AI in Industrie 4.0 as well as possibilities of implementation using technical standards. Due to numerous international activities in the field of Artificial Intelligence, it is our goal to initiate a national discourse that allows for an early involvement and co-design of international activities. For German stakeholders, this offers the opportunity to bring future technologies to the market by establishing international norms and standards. 

The second annual meeting of the German-Mexican working group on quality infrastructure took place in León, Guanajuato, in the context of the Hannover Messe. More than 40 high-ranking representatives of the government, industry & technical institutions participated.

The meeting confirmed that both governments are ready and committed to strengthen cooperation in the fields of quality infrastructure, standardization and conformity assessment.

Opening the meeting, Ernesto Acevedo Fernández, Undersecretary of State for Industry and Trade of the Ministry of Economy, stressed that progress in the development of quality infrastructures can strengthen competition and reduce inequalities. Therefore, small and medium-sized enterprises were a priority for the Mexican government. Acevedo added that Mexico and Germany are countries whose economies are exposed to international trade, so it is appropriate to address challenges together in a framework of trade opening that must ensure the free flow of goods, services, technology and data.

Stefan Schnorr, responsible for digital and innovation policy at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy in Germany, said that the economy is increasingly global and digital. He acknowledged that the two countries have a very active communication on standardisation and conformity assessment and stressed the importance of the challenges for the regulation and standardisation of online trade, market surveillance and computer security worldwide.

Alfonso Guati Rojo, Director General of Standards of the Ministry of Economy, explained that by promoting the project of the new Law on Quality Infrastructure, the Mexican government is seeking to increase the participation of industry in standardization processes and to standardize with regulations that shorten the time required to update standards for the benefit of the industry itself and consumers, with the emphasis on strengthening the culture of quality infrastructure throughout the industry, rather than on coercive or corrective measures.

For their part, Volkmar Stein and Yves Leboucher shared the German experience and the standardization process in Industry 4.0 on current topics such as artificial intelligence. The experts reported on the progress of standards development and standardization in Germany, which is characterized by its transparency and the active participation of the chambers of industry, interest groups, trade unions, professional associations and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy.

The meeting also served to report on the progress of cooperation between the two working groups last year and between the two countries with regard to standardization, conformity assessment and to sign the work programme for next year.

The meeting was also attended by the subprocurators Talía del Carmen Vázquez and Agustín Pineda from the Federal Office of Public Prosecution, René Carranza from the National Metrology Center, Maribel López from the Mexican Accreditation Body and various German officials and experts such as Boris Bohme, Director of Product Safety and Market Surveillance; Anshali Shtaponvoncul, Consultant for Conformity Assessment; Volkmar Stein from the Ministry of Economics and Energy and Daniel Solterbeck from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zusammenarbeit.

- is the title of a publication by DKE standards manager Holger Lange and head of Innovation Stefan Heusinger in the current issue of DIN Mitteilungen.

Functional safety has become indispensable, particularly in automation technology, aviation and the automotive sector. With the requirements and established methods laid down in the standards, it supports developers in bringing functionally safe products to the market.

While linear "stand alone" products were still state of the art a few years ago, complexity is now increasing multi-dimensionally with the required degree of networking between Industry 4.0 and Artificial Intelligence.

Challenges arising in this context for both developers and standardization were discussed with the expert audience at this year's "Erfurter Tage" - the established DKE event for Functional Safety.

You can obtain the complete publication here.