Ludwigsburg - A key feature of Industry 4.0 scenarios is networking. Data flows not only between cyber-physical systems in the Smart Factory but also between departments, companies and other stakeholders. For this to happen, a certain mindset is required from all those involved: openness for intensive cooperation in the ecosystem. The Open Industry 4.0 Alliance, which was founded in 2019, aims to achieve just that. So far, more than 50 industrial companies, software providers and consultancies have joined forces. Since February 2020, the management and IT consultancy MHP has also been an active member of the alliance.
"In recent years, we have already designed and implemented numerous IoT and industry 4.0 scenarios and, of course, frequently worked together with partners. And we are already involved in a whole range of institutions," says Jens Fath, Strategic Lead [I]IOT Transformation at MHP. "The Open Industry 4.0 Alliance plays an exceptional role in this. This is where we regularly exchange views on very fundamental aspects. One focus is the combination and orchestration of existing standards into a framework, as this is the only way to achieve connectivity. We also work on very concrete products and services for practical use. And: As a consulting company, we benefit significantly from the high-performance [I]IOT Ecosystem, because together with hardware and software manufacturers, we can offer our customers standardized end-to-end solutions.
The Open Industry 4.0 Alliance divides its competencies into four areas: "Open Edge Connectivity" and "Open Edge Computing" are located at the shop floor level, "Open Operator Cloud Platform" and "Common Cloud Central" at the cloud level. Here, different members each contribute their specific skills - always keeping an eye on the big picture. MHP intends to work primarily on the vertical and horizontal integration of processes and use cases for the discrete industry to sharpen IOT frameworks for the mobility and manufacturing environment from existing standards and new recommendations for action. Also, MHP focuses on the definition of use cases and solutions in the areas of Open Edge Computing and Open Operator Cloud Platform. Jens Fath: "We deliberately bring in our expertise on a broad basis by defining horizontally integrated processes and use cases for the discrete industry. To this end, we focus on the vertical integration of edge devices up to the cloud - since this is where customer demand in the [I]IOT environment is the highest.“
