Open Industry 4.0 Alliance at Hannover Messe 2024: Focus on Digital Twin, Digital Product Passport, and Joint Industry Initiatives
Alliance presents cross-industry and cross-technology implementation projects to enhance interoperability in compliance with existing and forthcoming regulatory requirements.
Reinach, Switzerland, March 27, 2024 – The Open Industry 4.0 Alliance will take place once again at the Hannover Messe (exhibition hall) from April 22 to 26 in Hall 15, Stand E40 – marking five years since its establishment at this very event. Projects undertaken by the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance aim to further enhance interoperability among leading companies from various sectors, by leveraging existing and future regulations to increase economic efficiency. One of the main areas of focus remains the Digital Twin, which addresses the way industrial companies are preparing for upcoming EU regulations such as the Digital Product Passport and the Cyber Resilience Act at a technological level.
To make the Digital Twin concept experiential, the “Follow The Digital Twin” community activity and competition – a major success at SPS 2023 in Nuremberg – will take place again at Hannover Messe. With even more participants, the event will be more interoperable through a platform transition. The aim of the competition is to give all trade fair visitors the opportunity to learn about the concept of the Digital Twin, experience it in a playful manner, and dispel concerns about its perceived complexity, with participating organizations including existing member firms, partner organizations, and end users.
QR codes at exhibitor stands will mark the Digital Twin of a device, which visitors will be able to scan to open a corresponding web app containing additional information. Participants who identify and scan the Digital Twins will be entered into a prize draw at the Alliance stand. Products and solutions from member companies such as AS-Schneider, Concept Reply, Dunkermotoren, Hilscher, KUKA and their subsidiaries Device Insight and Kübler, will also be showcased at the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance stand.
The theme of the second event focuses on the Digital Product Passport (DPP), an EU initiative under the codesign for the Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) directive. The DPP, currently being defined by the European standardization organization CEN/CENELC, is set to become mandatory for certain product groups – such as electric car batteries – starting in 2026. To pragmatically address this regulatory challenge, the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance established a cross-working-group project last year, focusing not only on technical groundwork but also on how manufacturing companies can turn regulatory requirements into opportunities. Visitors to the stand will receive practical insights on how to implement product flow and end-to-end lifecycle management with DPP, demonstrated by using a bicycle production example.
“The implementation of this new directive necessitates the delivery of accurate, up-to-date data in the correct format from various systems to the right destination, and a highly complex and unique process for each company,” explains Rüdiger Fritz, Director of Product Management at SAP and one of the most active contributors to the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance. “We are exploring efficient pattern solutions to tackle this complexity, and enabling companies to derive maximum benefit for their products or underlying business processes during implementation. For instance, by identifying synergies and creating added value – such as process optimizations or new business models – alongside the mandatory exercise of DPP.”
In addition to the Digital Twin and DPP, Vulnerability Management under the upcoming European Union Cyber Resilience Act [1] is also a topic for the Alliance at Hannover Messe. This act aims to regulate “horizontal cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements”. In this context, the BSI has issued technical guidelines (TR-03183, and TR-03183-2) [2] outlining the cybersecurity resilience requirements for manufacturers and products, including formal and technical specifications for the Software Bill of Materials (SBOM). Thus far, Vulnerability Management, especially across devices, has been minimally automated.
Furthermore, industry initiatives such as Manufacturing-X and Factory-X, as well as Remote Device Management and Instrumentation Management in cross-manufacturer environments, will also be important topics for the Alliance at this year’s Hannover Messe.
At Hannover Messe 2024, Ekrem Yigitdoel, Managing Director of the Alliance and Implementation GmbH of the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance, Ricardo Dunkel, Technical Director of the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance, and executives from participating member companies, will be available for interviews. Appointments can be arranged via oia_de@berkeleypr.com.
Press release images are available for download here.
More information on the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance at Hannover Messe 2024 can be found at: https://openindustry4.com/events/oi4-alliance-at-the-hannover-messe-2024/
Check also SPS Italia Follow The Twin Challenge 2023 recap!
Sources:
[1] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/cyber-resilience-act