"Six years ago the first edition of the Standardization Roadmap Industrie 4.0 had its premiere. A lot has happened since then. Over the past six years the term Industrie 4.0 has developed from a catchword to a tried and tested approach and now describes a completely new level of production as well as the organization and control of the entire added value chain. Technically, Industrie 4.0 represents the fusion of IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology).

This leads to a significant overlapping of previously separate areas of standardization. Issues, requirements and working methods that were previously relevant to the information and communication technology sector, for example, now also affect mechanical engineering and the electrical industry to an even greater extent.

With this “Version 4” of the Roadmap we want to set down a vision for Industrie 4.0: the achievement of interoperability. By this we mean that machines in networked digital ecosystems communicate with each other in an interoperable manner. Only a high degree of interoperability ensures networking across company and industry boundaries. This requires standards and integration, a uniform regulatory framework, decentralized systems and artificial intelligence.".

(Prof. Dr. Dieter Wegener, Chair SCI 4.0 Advisory Board Speaker DKE Vice President ZVEI Management Board Industrie 4.0)

After a year long wait, the time has finally come: The German standardization roadmap industrie 4.0 is finally here. The activities for the progress report in 2022 also marked the start of the current Edition of the standardization roadmap. The assessments made in the progress report served as the basis for the direction of the content of the fifth edition of the standardization roadmap.

In its fifth edition, the Industry 4.0 standardization roadmap will address the existing and forthcoming challenges on the basis of new findings and place them in the correct normative context. It maps the current standardization and actor landscape and identifies existing or potential gaps. Ensuring and internationally coordinating the pervasiveness of an open and global Industrie 4.0 ecosystem remains the stated goal.

 The standardization roadmap focuses on interoperability, sovereignty, and environmental and social sustainability. The aspect of sustainability in particular has received a lot of attention in this edition. In order to achieve the UN's sustainability goals, ecological and digital transformation is of strategic importance worldwide. An important element for this is the Digital Product Passport (DDP), which enables transparency regarding sustainable production along the value chain in the first place. For the creation of the DDP based on the asset administration shell, the methodology of a "DPP4.0" described in the standardization roadmap Industrie 4.0 serves as a basis. The roadmap will be presented to a public audience on the Hannover fair 2023. With this in mind, the authors hope you enjoy reading this document.

Starting signal for the Industry 4.0 standardization roadmap version 5

One year after the publication of the fourth edition of the standardization roadmap, a lot has also happened at the standardization level on I4.0 and it is time to take a closer look at the implementation status of the recommendations for action made and to show what concrete implementations and progress have been made at the normative level compared to 2020. The last meeting of the SCI 4.0 - Standardization Roadmap Industry 4.0 working group gave the go-ahead for the preparation of the 2022 progress report, which is intended to show the individual implementation progress of the recommendations for action and at the same time initiate the content direction for an upcoming version 5 of the NRM I4.0. The progress report will be published and presented at Hannover Messe 2022. In its fifth edition, the Industrie 4.0 standardization roadmap will address the existing and upcoming challenges based on new findings and place them in the right normative context.

It will provide an up-to-date picture of the standardization and stakeholder landscape, identify existing or potential gaps and make appropriate recommendations for action. Ensuring and internationally coordinating the consistency of an open and global Industry 4.0 ecosystem should continue to be the declared goal.

With this in mind, we would like to call on and motivate all interested parties to actively participate in the process of creating the new Industrie 4.0 standardization roadmap.

Under the leadership of Olga Meyer, employee at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA, the working group 1941.0.1 "Standardization Roadmap" is currently working on the fifth version of the standardization roadmap.

The Standardization Roadmap Industrie 4.0 publication series provides a strategic and technical analysis of both national and international standardization in the field of Industrie 4.0 and offers recommendations for action. Under my leadership, the "Standardization Roadmap Industrie 4.0" working group of the Standardization Council Industrie 4.0 developed the fourth edition of the German Standardization Roadmap Industrie 4.0 in 2020. This progress report, published last year, provides an update on the implementation status of the recommendations made in that edition.

A total of 115 recommendations for action were assessed and evaluated regarding their implementation, involving experts from the relevant national standardization bodies. A particularly positive interim conclusion was that 62 of these recommendations could be classified as progress. In the outlook at the end of the progress report, we prepared the groundwork for anchoring key projects such as the Digital Product Passport, the Digital Type Plate, and other application examples in the standardization landscape for Industrie 4.0 within the upcoming roadmap.

The assessments made in this report also served as a guide and foundation for the fifth edition of the Standardization Roadmap, which was published in 2023.

While sustainability aspects related to people and work have always been integral to the Standardization Roadmap, the latest edition placed a stronger emphasis on transparency along the entire product life cycle and the traceability of raw materials. These aspects are increasingly crucial from a normative perspective and must be considered today to ensure compliance with future regulatory requirements.

We hope that this publication continues to drive forward the standardization of Industrie 4.0 and remains a key "door opener" for the standardization of digital manufacturing. We wish all readers an insightful and inspiring read.

Olga Meyer
Group Leader for Interoperability for Digital Production at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA and Chair of the Standardization Roadmap Industry 4.0 working group