For the fourth time, the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance will be represented at the SPS, which will take place in Nuremberg from November 14 to 16, 2023. The Alliance will be in hall 5, at stand 160. It last appeared this spring at the SPS Italia and at HI Tech & Industry Scandinavia in Denmark. The Nuremberg SPS will focus on digital twins and practical ways in which companies can prepare on a technological level for upcoming EU regulations, such as the Digital Product Passport and the Cyber Resilience Act. In addition, the “Follow the Twin” competition will help stand visitors to see for themselves the interoperability of standardized digital twins, as well as giving them the opportunity to win a prize. Launched in 2019 at the Hannover Messe, the Alliance has grown into a true community of practitioners, with 103 members.
“Our motto is ‘Better together’ and this approach makes us a breath of fresh air in the Industry 4.0 landscape,” explains Ekrem Yigitdöl, Managing Director of the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance. “Through concrete implementation projects, we consolidate standards and strengthen our collaboration with other organizations. By working together, we achieve more for our members and their customers.”
The introduction and use of digital twins is less complex than some players in the industry suppose. To enable trade show visitors to experience this for themselves, the Alliance is organizing the “Follow the Twin” competition, which will lead visitors all over the trade show to the stands of 13 Alliance members [1]. At the exhibitors’ stands, QR codes indicating that a device has a digital twin can be scanned to open an associated web app. Anyone who finds and scans five or more of the digital twins – all of which have been structured according to the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) standard by the companies – can obtain a prize from the Alliance stand.
Another focal point of the event is the Digital Product Passport (DPP), an initiative due to be introduced by the European Commission as part of its Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) – and another component of the European Green Deal. The DPP is currently being defined by the European standardization organization CEN/CENELC and is expected to become compulsory for the first product groups from as early as 2026. “The Digital Product Passport, which is due to become compulsory for electric car batteries in around 2026, is a great example of what it means to focus on practical application,” explains Christoph Hock, Strategic Project & Product Manager for the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance.
“For the DPP, we’ve just launched a project spanning multiple working groups. It involves technical foundation work but is also very consciously looking at how we can make a virtue of necessity. We want to focus on the positive. When this regulatory requirement is implemented, correct, always up-to-date data in the correct format will need to be taken from different systems and written to the correct place. This process is very elaborate and varies greatly between companies. Therefore, we are asking ourselves, ‘How can this complexity be approached using efficient standard solutions?’ And much more importantly, ‘How can I ensure that the implementation generates benefits for my product or my underlying business processes?’ ” explains Rüdiger Fritz, Director Product Management at SAP and Working Group Lead of the Open Operator Cloud for the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance.
The third focal point in addition to digital twins and the DPP is vulnerability management within the framework of the European Union’s upcoming Cyber Resilience Act [2]. This act will regulate “horizontal cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements.” In relation to this, the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has published technical guidelines on cyber resilience requirements for manufacturers and products ([3] TR-03183 and TR-03183–2) that describe formal and technical requirements for the Software Bill of Materials (SBOM). So far, vulnerability management – especially across the many different devices – has been automated to a very minor extent. The Alliance’s Remote Device Management Working Group will present a demo of interoperable vulnerability management based on the AAS framework and the BSI’s technical guidelines for the SBOM.
Further information on the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance’s appearance at the trade show:
“Follow the Twin” visitor competition: https://openindustry4.com/events/sps2023/follow-the-twin-challenge-at-sps-2023/
SPS presentation: “What digital twins based on AAS could mean for medium-sized component manufacturers – an example from the real-world experience of a component manufacturer.” The role of the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) and the benefits of the digital twin. A short presentation (in German) by Christian Günther, Topic Owner Digital Twin at Conplement, and Markus Weishaar, Director IIoT and Services at Dunkermotoren GmbH, both of whom are actively involved in the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance
On November 14, 2023, from 4:20 pm to 4:40 pm in hall 8, 410, Forum
Networking event: OI4 Lounge at the Alliance’s stand (hall 5, stand 160) on November 15, 2023, from 4:30 pm. Have an informal chat with Alliance members and Industry 4.0 experts
Among others, the following speakers will be available to talk to you at the SPS 2023:
- Ekrem Yigitdöl, Managing Director of the Alliance and Open Industry 4.0 Implementation GmbH
- Ricardo Dunkel, Technical Director of the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance
Further information on the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance’s appearance at the SPS 2023 is also available here: https://openindustry4.com/events/sps2023/
Sources:
[1] Participating partners: AS-Schneider, Bürkert Fluid Control Systems, Conplement, Dunkermotoren GmbH, Endress+Hauser, Hilscher, ifm electronic, InterSystems, Kübler, Lenze, M&M Software, Stahl, Weidmüller
[2] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/cyber-resilience-act
About the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance:
The Open Industry 4.0 Alliance acts as a partnership association of leading industrial companies that pragmatically participate in the implementation of cross-vendor industry 4.0 solutions and services for manufacturing plants and automated warehouses. In industry and technology working groups, industry experts develop, use cases, and implement them technically based on the OI4 reference architecture. These solutions, along with implementation guides, are shared within the community and made available outside the Alliance. The Alliance was launched in April 2019. The seat of the association is Reinach, Switzerland.