The hottest German industry 40 German thinking tha

German industry 4.0, which can't be learned in the past three years, has caused a heat wave in the world, but no country, like Germany, has established a special organization to dig deeply and carefully. The whole industrial system is built around industry 4.0. Such an abstract concept still has the concept of environmental media, which is simply described by the Germans one stroke at a time

German industrial thinking is visible, but not necessarily learned

pyramid command of industry 4.0

the industry 4.0 platform established in Germany is the central hub of the industrial digital ecosystem, with more than 350 stakeholders from more than 150 organizations participating in the work of the platform. Its core is the various working groups, which bring together various professional knowledge through the collaboration of experts in various fields, the support of small and medium-sized enterprises, and the organization of international cooperation

it adopts a flat decision-making mechanism: from the top-level industrial 4.0 platform to the intermediate standardization Council industrie4.0 (sci4.0) and enterprise oriented laboratory network (Lab networks industrie4.0, lni4.0). This is a top-down and bottom-up ternary governance structure

Figure 1: Pyramid decision-making mechanism

but at the beginning, the industrial 4.0 platform was also a messy structure

Figure 2: structure of early industry 4.0 platform (2016)

(source: German industry 4.0 transcript)

compared with industry 4.0 platform in 2016, we know that the organizational structure of industry 4.0 platform has undergone exquisite evolution in these two years

at present, there are six working groups in industry 4.0, including working group I WG1, which are mainly reference architectures, standards and specifications. The chairman is from ABB; The second working group is technology and application scenarios, and the chairman is from Phoenix Contact; The third working group is the security of interconnected systems, and the chairman is from Bosch; The fourth working group is the legal framework, and the chairman is from ThyssenKrupp; The fifth working group is employment, education and training, and its chairman is from the German metal industry association; Working group 6 is the digital business model of industry 4.0. The chairman is from Accenture consulting

in April 2016, the German industry 4.0 Standardization Committee (sci4.0) was established in Berlin with the goal of coordinating the international standards organization. SCI is responsible for benchmarking and connecting with these dense international organizations, so as to finally establish Germany's own technology roadmap and standard architecture of industry 4.0. The biggest feature of this organization is that it is interdisciplinary. It combines the mechanical, electrical and it fields well, so it is widely welcomed

Figure 3: for different national strategies, SCI has systematically established cooperation mechanisms with China intelligent manufacturing, American industrial interconnection alliance IIC, Japan IVI Association, France, Italy and Australia

at the bottom is the industrial 4.0 laboratory network (lni4.0), which is responsible for the testing, experiment and feedback of the specific implementation of the standard. This is an enterprise oriented and landing oriented application-oriented organization. It maximizes all the consensus that can be reached in German industry 4.0 and passes it on to German small and medium-sized enterprises in the way of practice and implementation

Figure 4: the cycle of ternary governance

with the division of labor among the three, industry 4.0 can be easily connected at all levels. It not only promotes the interconnection of German enterprises, but also greatly promotes international exchanges. At present, German industry 4.0 has established bilateral docking relations with China, the United States IIC, Japan IVI, Australia, France and Italy. China and Germany established the China Germany intelligent manufacturing/industry 4.0 standardization working group in May 2015. At present, cooperation and exchanges have been carried out in reference model mutual recognition, information security and functional security, industrial network and edge computing, cases, predictive maintenance, artificial intelligence applications, and industrial 4.0 components/management shell/digital twins

it can be said that Germany has accurately constructed a top-level governance structure for Industry 4.0

as accurate as the German chariot

expand to industrial interconnection: VBS (value based scenario)

under the background of industry 4.0, people gradually realize that in order to realize the digitalization of manufacturing industry, in addition to the bottom-up method driven by technology, it must also be driven by the top-down method. The latter is driven by business scenarios and business models, resulting in many technology application examples. These examples are also the basis for obtaining new products, solutions and services, as well as standardization

how to describe the interaction between participants and technical system in the form of examples at the technical level. The scope of consideration has been set through the specific application scenarios of the industrial 4.0 platform

the German industry 4.0 platform puts forward a new idea: value based scenario (VBS), which is based on scenarios and considers the value of digital industrial services

considering that the product is a machine and equipment, there are only two traditional roles: equipment supplier and equipment owner

Figure 5: value based service application scenario VBS

however, the wide application of industrial interconnection makes this most traditional application scenario introduce two additional roles: service platform operator and data-driven service provider

who will complete these additional business roles in the future? Is it the supplier or the owner of the machine. With the introduction of digital technology, many third parties have flocked to this problem. This is also the most puzzling point of the industrial Internet platform: the roles of each supplier are blurred and cross

the German industry 4.0 platform believes that the promotion of VBS based application scenarios is an important cornerstone of deepening industry 4.0

Germany asks what is digital business model

what is digital business model

does this question need to be answered? Germans don't think so

the contribution of German industry 4.0 to value creation is focusing on two points: one is the action mechanism, and the other is the framework of digital business model. The government, scientists, business associations and social partners are all discussing the added value that German industry can bring, as well as how to improve Germany's competitiveness and quality of life

the German industry 4.0 platform group has specially added the 6th digital business model working group to solve these problems according to needs, and provide impetus for action through structured discussions among different stakeholders

Figure 6: the innovation driving force of digital business model

in April 2018

the German industry 4.0 platform found two foundations. One is the definition of business model by Osterwalder and pigner (2010), that is, business model is the basic principle that describes how an organization creates, delivers and captures value. This usually includes value proposition, value creation framework and partner network. The second is that according to jaekel (2015), the digital business model in the value creation architecture is characterized by focusing on data and analysis, and organizing its partners into an extensible ecosystem through the platform. This is closely related to the transformation of value proposition (products and services) and profit model (cost structure and revenue)

then one of the tasks in work 6 is to study how to apply this definition to product manufacturing

is really a novel task. Compared with domestic manufacturing, the most commonly talked about is new manufacturing and new models. However, no one knows what is behind it. The first thing that comes to mind in Germany is to determine the conceptual basis and reach a consensus starting point

the Germans have provided some answers. It is worth noting that by increasing the share of software in products, it will usually be combined with the use of the platform to enhance greater scalability

Figure 7: experience becomes one of the cornerstones

the working group solemnly reminds German manufacturers that they must expand their focus from products and production to the operation mechanism based on data services, that is, intelligent products + intelligent services + new experience. Intelligent services are new values generated based on data, such as driverless vehicles that will not cause accidents

figure 8: new thinking of digital business model

the cornerstone of promoting the transformation of digital business model is intelligent products, platforms, ecosystems and digital twins. Behind all this is the underlying technology to achieve stronger connectivity, faster speed and smaller size

the quality of data (raw materials), operating system and governance structure determine the key differences. In order to provide the best possible operating environment, correct supervision and people-oriented key drivers are needed

Figure 9: progress of German industry 4.0

management shell: everything has a coat

industry 4.0 components came into being to integrate various assets into the information world. The assets here include all the contents that need to be connected to realize the industrial 4.0 solution, such as machines and their parts; Supply materials, parts and products; Drawings, wiring diagrams and other exchanged documents; Contracts and orders, etc

the most valuable way to digitally express these industrial 4.0 components is the management shell proposed by the German industrial 4.0 platform. The digital forms of various assets of enterprises are expressed through asset administration shell (AAS)

in industrial 4.0 components, digital integration is realized through management shell. It can integrate assets into industry 4.0 communication; Provide controlled access to all information of assets; It is a standardized and secure communication interface; Support the integration of passive assets with barcode or QR code without communication interface; And it is addressable in the network, which can clearly identify assets. It can be said that the management shell is the interconnection expression of industrial 4.0 components

Figure 10: management shell conforming to IEC PAS 63088 standard

since 2015, Germany has been focusing on the management shell, making various model descriptions and standard coverage. These intertwined models, together with practices from enterprises, are pushing German made products into cyberspace. Germany's most proud machine will soon become a machine with digital twins. The digital readiness of German machines is visible

Figure 11: German management shell

Germany announced the latest progress of management shell at the Nuremberg exhibition in November 2018

Figure 12: application of management shell on IOT platform

management shell can cover the whole life cycle of production, manufacturing system and business. Next, take the engine as an example to introduce the relevant contents contained in the management shell. First, in the engineering phase, the management shell will consider various functions. For example, the torque of the engine and the high performance of the shaft will be placed in the management housing. Next, select a specific type of engine provided by the manufacturer, and more information about this type of engine will be added to the management shell. Next, the engine manufacturer provides a component to calculate and simulate the engine, so as to simulate and confirm the model selection in the previous step. In the commissioning stage, the engine will be ordered, and the engine type will change to an engine instance with a serial number, which is the unique data of this engine. In this way, the management shell is further enriched. Measured temperature and vibration during engine operation