The Open Industry Alliance 4.0 (OIA) has emerged as a leading candidate global forum promoting IoT, 5G and edge technologies as well as standards, after gaining some major multinational members with Microsoft latest to join. Siemens has also added weight as a new recruit given its huge manufacturing base, but being German that is a less significant addition to what had initially looked like a European club. Indeed it was dominated initially by German manufacturers and electronics companies after its formation in April 2019, and these still account for the majority of its members now numbering almost 80.
That reflects both the pre-eminence of German manufacturing and the country’s leadership role in the industrial IoT (IIoT), which has led to early adoption of private 5G networks by big players such as Bosch, bypassing mobile operators as we have reported before. Naturally though the OIA wanted to attract major international technology firms and manufacturers based outside Germany and enjoyed some success in Japan, which has also been an early hub for IIoT.
Fujitsu was a big name to join, along with NTT Data, a system integration company part owned by Japanese technology group NTT. Yokogawa Electric, a Japanese electrical engineering and software company, was another major recruit with 19,000 employees, 84 subsidiaries and operations in 55 countries.
Outside Japan, the OIA was beginning to make inroads in North America even before Microsoft joined, with Zebra Technologies, a US manufacturer of marking, tracking and computer printing systems, joining up. There is also some involvement from China through KUKA, a German based manufacturer of industrial robots and other systems for factory automation, owned by the Chinese Midea Group since 2016.
Then there are also signs of the emerging German/Russian axis driven by the former’s reliance on the latter for natural gas after having abandoned nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011. Novatek, Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer, is also a OIA member.
The joining of Microsoft has given a particular boost to the OIA, not just because it is a major US technology company that has successfully rejuvenated itself in the era of cloud computing and AI, but also because it has pivotal roles in various other formative standards groups around IIoT. It is a member of the venerable OPC Foundation, a more general industry consortium founded in 1999 to produce and update standards for open connectivity of process control systems, which is now as relevant as ever.
Microsoft also in April 2019 co-founded with BMW the Open Manufacturing Platform, a technology framework and community set up to share smart factory innovations across the automotive and manufacturing sectors. This was based on Microsoft’s Azure industrial IoT cloud platform to provide a reference architecture with open source components based on open industrial standards and an open data model. It cannot be regarded as an entirely impartial initiative, more one to help the two companies concerned and immediate partners get a leg up in the field.
The OIA on the other hand was handicapped from being firstly German and then Europe centric and so the opening out to major companies around the world is crucial if that is to become the major open forum for the industrial IoT.
Finally it is perhaps worth ruminating on what is meant by Industry 4.0 because these terms are bandied around often on the assumption that everyone knows what they mean, without a clear definition. It is seen as representing the fourth major industrial revolution, with a common theme through all the generations being that one particular country or region led the charge in each case.
The first revolution was the transition from almost entirely manual production, admittedly assisted by various tools, to machines driven by steam and water. The UK is widely regarded as the driver here, completing its revolution around 1820, followed 20 years later in Europe and the US.
The second revolution was then introduction of electric power between the mid-1800s and the start of the First World War in 1914, also bringing the internal combustion engine culminating in the first powered flight towards the end of this period. The other major developments were roll out of rail and telegraph networks, both greatly speeding up communications, and although spanning the then developed world was driven particularly by the USA.
The third revolution then began after the Second World War and gathered steam in the late 20th century, involving the introduction and then rapid progression of digital computation. This led to introduction of robotics into manufacture and assembly and a sustained reduction in unit cost. Again the USA, but also Japan and much later China, were driving forces, although Europe’s leading countries also played a major role.
Finally, the fourth revolution is very much about wireless communications hooking up with edge compute to enable new levels of automation and control in the assembly line. Germany can claim to be the engine of this revolution, having coined the term ‘Industrie 4.0’ in 2011 in a government project promoting the further computerization of manufacturing. Indeed, the term Industrie 4.0 was formerly introduced that same year at the Hannover Fair.
Some argue that there have really only been two revolutions. The first two were part of a process of mechanization and development of engines, first steam and then internal combustion or electrical, along with roll out of wired communications. The third and fourth revolution are then part of a digital continuum that brought automation, robotics, much faster computation, and wireless communications. That makes sense, but the industry needs as many revolutions and generations as it can to sustain investment and development.