E+H leads open source solutions

OPEN ALL HOURS

AUTOMATION • DIGITISATION ACROSS INDUSTRY WILL ONLY SUCCEED WITH OPEN ECOSYSTEMS DEVOID OF PROPRIETARY SOLUTIONS. A NEW ALLIANCE HAS GIVEN IT A KICK START

SEVEN LEADING SUPPLIERS in the fields of mechanical engineering, industrial automation and software have formed the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance. With this cooperation, the companies want to overcome proprietary solutions and give a decisive boost to the digital transformation of the European industry.

The founding members of the Alliance are: Beckhoff, Endress+Hauser, Hilscher, ifm, KUKA, Multivac and SAP. Since the Alliance was announced at the Hannover Messe 2019 trade fair, several more companies have joined up: Balluff, Gebhardt, Pepperl+Fuchs, Schmidtsche Schack, Samson and WIKA.

The Alliance is open to all companies working in the sector, with members showing a mutual commitment to the creation of a standardised and open ecosystem for the operation of highly automated factories and process plants with the integration of logistics and services.

“The open architecture of the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance meets all the requirements of the process industry,” says Matthias Altendorf, CEO of the Endress+Hauser Group. “It is based on standards, ensures transparency across all business processes and guarantees the integrity of the systems. This enables process plant operators to leverage the potential of digitalisation.”

MODULAR APPROACH The alliance members are planning to realise a so-called Open Industry 4.0 Framework based on existing standards such as I/O Link, OPC UA and RAMI for the entire route from objects in the workshop to services. Customers can choose from a modular system of compatible and scalable solution and service components, such as digital services from Endress+Hauser’s Netilion IIoT ecosystem, which was also introduced to industry during the Hannover Messe.

The 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 allows the simple connection of further system landscapes.

Endress+Hauser’s Netilion ecosystem is an early example of the approach. It combines applications and system components that significantly simplify system management and maintenance. The Netilion Scanner App, as well as Netilion System Components, make it easy to monitor the installed base, while Netilion Analytics provides an overview of the installed instruments. Netilion Health visualises and interprets the status of the installed base, enabling operators to quickly initiate maintenance measures when irregularities occur. Netilion Library offers an online data management service for the entire life cycle of the measurement point.

The Netilion Scanner is more than just an app; it can be used to store images and other information such as GPS coordinates, tag numbers or the location of the instrument. Other measurement data such as the accessibility of the instrument, criticality or quality-relevant parameters can also be defined directly in the field and stored via the app. The data is then automatically saved online and stored offline on the instrument’s RFID tag.

Components such as adapters, gateways and edge devices facilitate automatic capture of the instruments and instrument data without having to interact with the control circuit. The installed base of instruments is now stored in the Netilion Analytics online service to automatically create a digital twin of the system. The installed base can then be analysed with the help of dashboards in order to initiate proactive maintenance measures for critical instruments or swap out discontinued instruments. Endress+Hauser already has digital twins of 40 to 47 million instruments, which serve as the foundation for Netilion Library. HCB www.endress.com www.openindustry4.com