Industry 4.0 with diva-e

Assessment: In Europe, digitization is usually used to describe the fact that data and processes find their way from paper form into a digital world. This creates the basis for capturing and processing this data in a machine-readable form. The two terms complement each other: digitization forms or expands the necessary foundations for Industry 4.0. In the North American region, digitization is often a synonym for "IIoT".

Assessment: Development in the I4.0 environment is ongoing and is not taking place in one big bang, but in many small steps. The vision is of an autonomously communicating industrial landscape in which components exchange information independently with others and thus automate the production cycle more and more. Considering the many different sub-aspects, which depend on specific domains and technologies as well as the individual use cases, it is not possible and should not be assumed that there is a ready-made, predefined structure at the detailed level.

Assessment: The digital twin comprises the digital representation of properties and functions of an asset. The diversity of the functional scope is constantly growing with the further development of digital processes. In the context of Industrie 4.0, the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) forms the basis for the Digital Twin.

Assessment: The Digital Twin changes to the extent that its fundamentals change or expand. This can be the creation of new areas or functionalities, such as new integration of technical process data, as well as specific details in these data series. As the areas that a DT encompasses expand, its functionalities also change. As diverse domains are included in the mapping of a twin (manuals, process data ...), the underlying systems are also distributed: An engineering team represents technical aspects and drawings in different formats and programs than the documentation team for the manuals, or the maintenance team based on machine and sensor data. They are thus to be understood as distributed information in distributed systems, all of which end up in the functional scope of the digital twin and extend its capabilities.

Assessment: The Digital Twin can be seen as a distributed software product. Like any other software, it will always change and be subject to adaptations throughout its lifetime.

Assessment: The diverse terms, which have been coined by the technology side or marketing, repeatedly lead to irritation. Put simply, Industrie 4.0 and IIoT describe one and the same thing and are often used as synonyms.

Assessment: The classification of "Internet of Things" depends on the context: In the end customer area (smart home, wearables), this refers more generically to networking. The fact that the devices or "things" are usually manufactured in industrial processes is not relevant for consumers as end customers. If, on the other hand, we are moving in the value-creating environment of the manufacturing trades, IoT can basically be equated with IIoT and is used as a synonym for the sake of simplicity or convenience.

Assessment: The German word "Verwaltungsschale" (Asset Administration Shell, or AAS for short) is the basic framework for a "digital twin" with regard to RAMI 4.0. The AAS does not claim to reinvent and redefine everything. Rather, it stands for a bracket that takes care of all properties and functions of an asset. This means that all aspects of a product (asset) are described by the management shell or referred to in a standardized way where the information can be found. The scope therefore ranges from technical drawings and manuals to operating data of an asset. In other words, everything that belongs to a product.

Assessment: The Administration Shell (AAS) forms a generic capability that enables the representation of a component up to a factory. All that is specified is how assets and their submodels are related: The content itself must relate to the domain in which it is deployed. It is therefore not to be expected that the AAS will be a ready-made, usable product off the shelf. Various sub-models will evolve domain-specifically over time to facilitate use. However, this circumstance does not prevent the need for individual initiative: If you see and have interest in using the AAS in your environment, you will automatically need to address the mapping and integration of the AAS into your ecosystem.