Towards Industry 4.0 - Standardization as the crucial challenge for highly modular, multi-vendor production systems

TLDR

The 4th industrial revolution envisions IoT‑enabled factories for greater flexibility and adaptability, yet current solutions remain vendor‑specific or isolated. The study aims to replace proprietary Industry 4.0 approaches with open, standardized solutions and reviews the SmartFactoryKL initiative’s progress toward a modular, multi‑vendor production line. The authors implemented the SmartFactoryKL, a first multi‑vendor, highly modular production system serving as an Industry 4.0 reference. German automation providers, spurred by policy and research, have begun offering Industry 4.0 solutions, and the SmartFactoryKL project’s findings outline future research directions for modular production lines.

Abstract

The vision of the 4th industrial revolution describes the realization of the Internet of Things within the context of the factory to realize a significantly higher flexibility and adaptability of production systems. Driven by politics and research meanwhile most of the automation technology providers in Germany have recognized the potentials of Industry 4.0 and provide first solutions. However, presented solutions so far represent vendor-specific or isolated production system. In order to make Industry 4.0 a success, these proprietary approaches must be replaced by open and standardized solutions. For this reason, the SmartFactoryKL has realized a very first multi-vendor and highly modular production system as a sample reference for Industry 4.0. This contribution gives an overview of the current status of the SmartFactoryKL initiative to build a highly modular, multi-vendor production line based on common concepts and standardization activities. The findings and experiences of this multi-vendor project are documented as an outline for further research on highly modular production lines.