Sub-Working Group Industrie 4.0 holds 12th Plenary Meeting

The event took place in a hybrid format, with the Chinese participants gathering physically in Beijing and German participants joining virtually. Together, they set milestones to be achieved until their 13th meeting which is planned for the second quarter of 2022. The plenary meeting was successfully concluded with a protocol signing ceremony.

 

The Chinese delegation was headed by YE Meng, Director of Intelligent Manufacturing Division, Department of Equipment and Manufacturing Industries I of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of P.R. China (MIIT). Ernst Stöckl-Pukall, Director of Division IVA3 Digitalisation and Industrie 4.0 at the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie – BMWi), and Dr Jens Gayko, Managing Director of the Standardization Council Industrie 4.0 (SCI 4.0) led the German delegation.

 

More than 100 experts in seven technical expert groups

Other delegations were composed of representatives of national standardisation organisations, research institutes, technical organisations, and enterprises. In total, the SWG I4.0 counts more than 100 Chinese and German standards experts participating actively in seven technical expert groups (TEGs). Although no physical events could be implemented in 2020 and 2021, the cooperation among the technical experts continued successfully on virtual channels. Since the plenary meeting in October 2020, almost 40 virtual meetings have taken place at the technical working level.

 

During the plenary meeting, the seven technical expert groups presented their working results achieved since the last plenary meeting in July 2021. This included the publication of the whitepaper on Time-Sensitive Networking of TEG Network Communication and Edge Computing which is available for download. The paper explains the meaning and evolution of TSN technology and provides an overview of different applications, conformity assessment processes and prospects for future joint development of TSN.

 

New topics with potential for future cooperation

TEG IT Security, TEG Digital Twin/Asset Administration Shell, TEG Functional Safety and TEG Artificial Intelligence in Industrial Applications are also working towards the publication of their respective joint paper.

 

Experts presented potential future topics for the Sino-German cooperation such as data spaces in Industrie 4.0 and the maturity model of Intelligent Manufacturing capability.

 

The 13th plenary meeting of the SWG I4.0 is scheduled to take place in Germany in summer 2022, in the scope of the 10th annual meeting of the SGSCC.