A Review of Interoperability Standards for Industry 4.0.

One aspect of Industry 4.0 incorporates data science and analytical models to analyse real time production data from multiple sources such as production machines, systems and processes and to accumulate these elements into an automated manufacturing system 1. To realise this vision of Industry 4.0, one of the main requirements is to achieve interconnectivity across a diverse set of devices 2 and to acquire and integrate large amounts of data which can be used to inform production decisions 3. However, one of the main challenges in implementing this solution is establishing interoperability with each device, which is primarily associated with a lack of standardisation available 4. This is a particularly pressing issue as new devices by different manufacturers are continuously being released presenting an ongoing challenge in establishing uniform interoperability. In total there are over 300 platforms for IoT solutions, with new applications continuously being developed 5. Thus, in this area there are a wide range of platforms, architectures and frameworks 6. The importance of solving these interoperability challenges have been identified in the Insight report by the World Economic Forum, which outlined the need to resolve these issues not solely at a national level but globally, in order to implement Industry 4.0. To achieve this aim requires the establishment of global standards which is an ongoing task 7. The focus of this paper is to examine the progress that is being made in order to establish interoperability across a diverse set of systems and also to identify the challenges in establishing this level of interoperability. To achieve this a literature review of current Industry 4.0 technologies and current interoperability standards was be undertaken, to identify and categorise potential frameworks capable of providing an Industry 4.0 global interoperability standard.