EN 
DE Visions, application examples and development goals
Author: Dr. Irmhild Rogalla, Institute for Practical Interdisciplinarity
Contribution – Embedded Software Engineering Congress 2016
Scenarios play a major role in the work of the German Federal Government's Industry 4.0 platform. They are used to collect requirements for the "RAMI – Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0", as application examples, and as visions.
Originally, scenarios from a technical perspective describe what could be achieved with cyber-physical production systems: Which products can be produced better, faster, and more efficiently, and in what way, and with what means? How can processes and process chains be more highly automated, controlled, and monitored? What entirely new possibilities for products and services, production and administration, but also for business models and value creation networks are conceivable through the use of the Internet of Things (IoT)?
The Industry 4.0 platform
„Industry 4.0 is one of the German Federal Government's future-oriented projects within the framework of its High-Tech Strategy 2020. In October 2012, the working group of the Research Union for Business and Science of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) presented its report "Implementation Recommendations for the Future Project Industry 4.0." At the 2013 Hannover Messe, the associations BITKOM, VDMA, and ZVEI announced their collaboration in the form of the "Industry 4.0 Platform." Since April 2015, the Federal Ministries for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the BMBF have jointly led the platform. Additional stakeholders from companies, associations, trade unions, and academia have joined since then.
According to its own description, initiating suitable standards under the umbrella of the Industry 4.0 reference architecture model is a key objective of the Industry 4.0 platform. These standards are intended to form the basis for Germany to secure and expand its leading international position in the manufacturing industry during and after the fourth industrial revolution. In addition, the platform's stakeholders are developing recommendations for action, a research agenda, and compelling application examples and scenarios that demonstrate the effects of networked production and value creation networks, as well as new business models.
The Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0 (RAMI)
The Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0 (see BITKOM, VDMA, ZVEI 2015, pp. 40ff; VDI/VDE 2015) unites various aspects in a single model: the vertical integration of business processes up to "smart" workpieces and products, end-to-end engineering from design to recycling, and the horizontal integration of companies in global value creation networks. To this end, the RAMI (Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0) combines various norms and standards from the technical domains of information and communication technology, automation technology, and mechanical and plant engineering. Building upon this foundation, the aim is to identify and develop any missing norms and standards. As a specialization of the "Internet of Things and Services" (VDI/VDE 2015, p. 6) and as a system architecture model, the RAMI is very compact and highly abstract.
RAMI is represented as a three-dimensional model (see figure)., See PDF) and VDI/VDE 2015, p. 9f). It is based on the Smart Grid Architecture Model (SGAM), which the European Smart Grid Coordination Group defined for "smart power grids". This model has been adapted and extended to meet the requirements of Industry 4.0.
On the vertical axis, layers represent different perspectives on production and production processes, including hardware (assets), data mapping, communication behavior, functional descriptions, and business processes. The product lifecycle and value chain are arranged on the horizontal axis in the foreground. This enables, among other things, the continuous recording of data and dependencies across the entire lifecycle – from initial design drawings to recycling.
The third axis (horizontal, from front to back) serves to locate functionalities and responsibilities within factories and plants. This is done using a functional hierarchy, explicitly not by means of device classes or hierarchy levels of the classic automation pyramid. The IEC 62264 and IEC 61512 standards are used for classification within a factory, supplemented by additional levels such as the "Field Device" and the "Product" (below the "Control Device") as well as the "Connected World" level (above the "Enterprise Level").
Currently (2016), work on the RAMI focuses on Industry 4.0 components and technical assets, the description and structure of the Industry 4.0 administration shell, and the grammar and semantics of an Industry 4.0 ontology. This primarily supports vertical integration and, to some extent, the continuity of engineering. So far, horizontal integration and the role of humans "as conductors in the value creation network" have not been explicitly considered in the RAMI work.
The scenarios
Since, on the one hand, many expectations are placed on RAMI, and on the other hand, few experts understand RAMI, its functions and tasks, as well as its development status and limitations, scenarios were developed – also by stakeholders of the Industry 4.0 platform. Originally, these served as a general description of future entrepreneurial challenges and to demonstrate the effects of networked production and value creation networks, such as new business models. Over time, further requirements were added.
In total, there are nine scenarios (as of Hannover Messe 2016): "Order-driven production," "Adaptable factory," "Self-organizing adaptive logistics," "Value-based services," "Transparency and adaptability of delivered products," "User support in production," "Smart product development for smart production," "Innovative product development," and "Circular economy" (see BMWi/PI40 2016). In addition to the challenge named after each scenario, they also describe its impact on the value chain and the added value for the participating companies.
Example scenario: Order-driven production
The scenario (PDF„Order-driven production“ (see BMWi/PI40 2016, pp. 8f) revolves around a highly flexible manufacturing configuration whose control and monitoring systems are networked across plants and companies. This is intended to enable rapid adaptation to market and customer requirements, both in terms of the size and type of each order. This requirement is also described as „individualized products at mass production prices“ or simply „batch size 1.“ The goal is to optimize production and manufacturing processes—even across multiple companies—in order to save time and costs. A prerequisite for such „order-driven production“ would be the standardization of each individual process step and the self-description of the capabilities of the production equipment. Only in this way would automated order planning, allocation, and control, as well as the independent integration of external factories into the production process, be possible.
The scenario predicts that today's value chains, based on individually negotiated contracts between OEMs and suppliers, will transform into highly fragmented, dynamically changing value networks. The added value for the stakeholders would arise for manufacturing companies from the expanded possibilities for utilizing their own machinery and equipment on the one hand, and the rapid integration of globally distributed external production capacities on the other.
The scenarios as examples
The original purpose of the scenarios is to demonstrate solutions for entrepreneurial challenges through the future use of cyber-physical systems. This is based on the ambitious technical understanding of Industry 4.0 underlying the RAMI and the work of the Plattform Industrie 4.0, which is founded on the technical integration of cyber-physical systems in production and logistics, as well as the integration of industrial processes into the Internet of Things and Services (Promoters Group 2013, p. 18). It is therefore not about any kind of digitization or networking of production, but rather – as stated in their own definition – "about the availability of all relevant information in real time through the networking of all entities involved in value creation, as well as the ability to derive the optimal value creation flow from the data at any given time" (Steering Committee of Plattform Industrie 4.0, cf. Scientific Advisory Board 2014, p. 1).
The application scenarios are intended to establish a link between the use of (yet to be developed) technology and business objectives. These scenarios should not be confused with the platform's current application examples (see Platform Industry 4.0 → Application Examples). The latter represent initial, implemented partial solutions that point towards "Industry 4.0." Examples include customers configuring their products themselves using a web tool or the full automation of intralogistics through the shared control of machines and industrial trucks.
The scenarios as visions
The use of cyber-physical production systems is not only meant to be illustrated. The scenarios are also intended to present positive visions of the future that support the platform's primary goal: "to secure and expand Germany's leading international position in the manufacturing industry" (Platform Industry 4.0). More specifically, the platform explores "which innovations in technology, work organization, law, and society German industry intends to use to navigate this digital future" (BMWi/PI40 2016, p. 3) and what challenges and questions arise in this regard.
The scenarios as use cases
The scenarios therefore also serve as "use cases", as a basis for collecting requirements for the "RAMI - Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0" and for recording regulatory or research needs in all areas, including:
- Technology, from the unambiguous (automatic) identification of "things" via radio technologies to databases for the real-time processing of "big data" or the integration of ERP and MES systems;
- IT security;
- Legal matters, from contract drafting to data protection;
- Work design and organization as well as qualification, competence and personnel development;
- etc.
Technical possibilities, economic developments and political expectations?
The attempt to envision concrete and detailed realizations of these scenarios in the future—even if only in 15 to 20 years (see Rogalla 2017)—initially leads to the realization that several levels of abstraction and generalization lie between the known technical possibilities of the IoT and the use of cyber-physical systems on the one hand, and the business and political expectations of "Industry 4.0" on the other. Given the goals pursued by the platform and its stakeholders, this is hardly surprising. Precisely for this reason, however, the question arises as to how likely the realization of these and other, comparable scenarios will be.
The technical feasibility of the "order-driven production" scenario, to name just one example, already appears questionable: This scenario aims for fully automated, networked process chains in production and manufacturing across multiple, changing plants and companies. This is not only eerily reminiscent of failures in the CIM era. Other experiences from the implementation of comprehensive IT solutions (e.g., ERP systems) also show that there is a contradiction between standardization (of processes) and individualization (of products) that is, if not irresolvable, then at least avoidable only with very high costs. All the challenges arising from safety and legal issues, as well as the entire area of work design and organization and employee training, have not even been considered yet.
Literature and sources
- BITKOM, VDMA, ZVEI (eds.) (2015): Implementation Strategy Industry 4.0. Final Report of the Industry 4.0 Platform. Berlin: BITKOM.
- Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy/Platform Industry 4.0 (ed.): Aspects of the research roadmap in application scenarios. Final paper. Berlin: BMWi, 2016.
- Platform Industry 4.0
- Communications Promoters Group (2013): Securing Germany's Future as a Business Location. Implementation Recommendations for the Industry 4.0 Future Project. Final Report of the Industry 4.0 Working Group. Berlin: Research Union Business – Science.
- Rogalla, I. (2017): Work processes of the future: „Industry 4.0“ scenarios in concrete terms. Berlin: R&W-Verlag (in preparation).
- VDI/VDE (2015): Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0 (RAMI4.0). VDI/VDE, April 2015.
- Scientific Advisory Board of the Platform Industry 4.0 (ed.) (2014): Industry 4.0 – Whitepaper R&D Topics.
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