At the Hannover Messe, held from April 1 to 5, 2019, seven leading suppliers in the fields of mechanical engineering, industrial automation and software announced the creation of the Open Industry 4.0 alliance.
The founding members of the alliance are Beckhoff, Endress+Hauser, Hilscher, ifm, KUKA, Multivac and SAP. In principle, the alliance is open to all companies. Balluff, Gebhardt, Pepperl+Fuchs, Schmidtsche Schack, Samson and WIKA have already joined the alliance as members. All the companies are mutually committed to creating a standardized, open ecosystem for the operation of highly automated plants and industrial processes with integrated logistics and services. Thanks to this cooperation, they intend to go beyond proprietary solutions and give a decisive boost to the digital transformation of European industry.
"The open architecture of the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance meets all the requirements of industrial processes, says Matthias Altendorf, CEO of the Endress+Hauser Group. It is based on the transparency of all business processes and guarantees the integrity of all systems. This enables manufacturers to exploit the full potential of digitalization.
The framework: Open Industry 4.0
The members of the alliance intend to realize a framework called Open Industry 4.0 based on existing standards such as I/O Link, OPC UA and RAMI for the entire path from field devices to services. Customers will be able to choose from a modular system of compatible, scalable solutions and service components, such as the digital services of Endress+Hauser's Netilion IIoT ecosystem.
Connection to the SAP software portfolio ensures the integration of a company's business processes, as well as collaboration with partners across company boundaries. The open architecture enables easy connection to other field systems.
Learn more: www.openindustry4.com