Industry Standards

The new and further development of technologies, processes and products is often associated with high time, personnel and financial costs for market players and companies alike. If there is uncertainty about the extent to which proprietary hardware or software solutions are compatible with third-party business solutions, this can lead to expensive redundancies in development, delay the market maturity of products or impair innovation overall. However, industry standards create a common framework on which all market players can build.

In a Nutshell

  • Industry standards are those that are generally accepted and applied 
  • Standards of this type can, but do not have to be norms
  • Industry standards simplify many processes for market participants
  • Companies that help develop later standards or adapt them at a very early stage benefit from competition

What Are Industry Standards?

An industry standard refers to an issue that is generally accepted and used within an industry. These include, for example, construction processes or technical specifications such as interface technologies. These standards usually develop over time, are taken up by market participants and are effectively established as industry standards through repeated use.

Industry standards are often referred to as “de facto standards”, as they do not necessarily have the character of a formal standard, but have proven to be practicable and useful in practice between companies and customers. The establishment of certain processes or procedures can also be enforced, for example through the agreement of individual / several leading companies within an industry. This takes place, for example, within the framework of industry or trade associations.

Industry-recognized standards can help companies to bring hardware and software solutions to market faster and more cost-effectively. In many cases, the use of these standards can make both business and manufacturing processes significantly more efficient. If a particular standard is widely used within an industry, this can also result in greater interoperability between the solutions of several companies. By using identical interfaces, for example, the interconnectivity of systems and machines can be considered a given.

Industry Standards in the Field of MES

Numerous guidelines have been established in the field of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), ranging from best practice solutions to international standards. Today, modern solutions for production control systems are characterized in particular by the standards, specifications and guidelines of the following institutions.

Standards (National & International)

Binding standards relating to MES solutions are set at international level by institutions such as the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) or the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission). Significant standards from these institutions include the following examples:

 

  • ISO 22400-2:2014-01

    This standard defines a set of relevant KPIs already used worldwide, such as the OEE key figure in production management. It also defines the relationship and effect model between KPIs and their KPI parameters in the context of the product, order, machines, systems and company to derive key performance indicators for your own MES requirements.

 

  • IEC 62264

    IEC 62264 is an entire series of standards. These standards focus on the integration of company IT and control systems. A key component of the standard is the illustration of various concepts and models that simplify this integration and thus sustainably increase the efficiency of information exchange within the company. The much-cited automation pyramid, for example, was also derived from this standard.

Industry Standards (Communication Protocols)

  • OPC-UA

    The term OPC-UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture) describes a communication standard. This standard provides a standardized interface for platform-independent machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. This allows machine data to be recorded, transported and processed by connected software applications. The standard was developed by the OPC Foundation. It complies with the IEC 62541-5:2021-08 standard.

     

  • MQTT 

    MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is a network protocol that is used in machine-to-machine communication. The open message protocol enables the exchange of information in the context of IoT applications (sensors, etc.) and is particularly suitable for efficient data transmission with low bandwidth. The current standard is ISO/IEC 20922:2016-06.

     

  • MTConnect

    MTConnect is an open communication standard that is used in the manufacturing industry in particular. The protocol enables the real-time acquisition of machine data and is used for the vertical networking of production systems at store floor level with software applications. The industry standard is based on XML and is particularly widespread in North America.

Association Guidelines (VDI / VDMA / ZVEI)

The trade and industry associations play an important role in establishing, specifying and classifying various standards. These include the following examples:

 

  • VDI (Association of German Engineers)

    The VDI e.V. guidelines offer clear recommendations for the practical implementation of various regulations. VDI 5600 is particularly relevant for the MES sector. It is a comprehensive guide to production management systems that is aimed specifically at managers/decision-makers in companies. When it was published in 2007, it was also the first version on the subject of MES in German. Internationally, however, IEC 62264 is now used for this purpose.

     

  • VDMA (German Engineering Federation)

    The VDMA e.V. regularly produces the VDMA standard sheets, the contents of which reflect the technical specifications of German mechanical engineering. The VDMA standard sheet 66412 series is important for the MES sector and today represents an important basis for the definition and standardization of MES processes and key figures. The 22 key performance indicators defined in standard sheet 66412 parts 1 and 2 were fully adopted into ISO 22400-2 in 2014 and have thus become an international standard. 

     

  • ZVEI (German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association)

    The association has already published several publications that take a comprehensive and cross-sectoral look at the possibilities of modern MES solutions. Central brochures and position papers were also based on the work results of the VDI and VDMA. Two well-known publications are the RAMI 4.0 cube (RAMI stands for Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0) and the asset administration shell model.

 

If you are looking for an MES solution that meets current industry standards and complies with all relevant norms, GFOS is the right address for you. We would be happy to advise you on our MES software.

The Benefits of Adhering to Industry Standards

There are many benefits to industry standards and adherence to these guidelines, both for companies within the industry and for the customers who use their solutions. The main reasons for adhering to industry standards are as follows:

Reduction of Integration Costs

If identical standards are used in several systems and processes, companies do not have to rely on potentially complex or expensive solutions to ensure compatibility with each other. By adhering to common industry standards, the integration costs incurred can generally be significantly reduced. In the best case scenario, plug-and-play solutions can even be implemented. 

Promoting Interoperability

A high degree of interoperability can be achieved by using uniform standards. This is the case, for example, when two systems from different manufacturers exchange information in standardized formats via standardized interfaces without the need to adapt products or processes. Since so many sub-areas can work together as one overall system in production, for example, interoperability is considered an important pillar of Industry 4.0.

Overview of the benefits of using industry standards

Efficient Use of Resources

If there are no clear standards in an industry, for example for data exchange, systems would theoretically have to be tailored in such a way that they consistently support only one selected variant or all possible variants. This would potentially entail high business risks and considerable financial costs. By agreeing on uniform industry standards, such additional costs are eliminated and companies can focus their resources on other business areas.

Increasing Flexibility

If certain software or hardware solutions comply with current industry standards, these solutions are potentially more attractive to other market participants. If companies base their considerations regarding the acquisition of machines / IT on current industry standards in this area, they have the advantage that these solutions can probably be used much more flexibly in conjunction with other solutions. If, on the other hand, they rely on special solutions from individual providers, they may be permanently tied to their systems and solutions and permanently lose flexibility.

Competing Industry Standards - Interests and Risks

If individual companies have sufficient market power or influence within an industry, they can try to set their own standards in certain areas or even establish them as competitors to the current industry standard. This can also be interesting for individual companies and interest groups if, for example, no binding standard has yet been established in a developing market. 

It can be very lucrative for individual market participants to establish their own solutions as the industry standard. At the same time, such a strategy is both very costly and highly risky, without it being clear which process/technology will be successful with the customer and therefore in the market. As long as they exist, such dual structures inevitably lead to inefficiencies in the market, as they can influence the investment decisions of companies and consumers.

At the same time, the relevance of certain industry standards can vary considerably depending on the size and focus of individual companies. Companies have a de facto duty to always keep an overview of which industry standards are relevant to their own business area and to what extent this should determine business decisions.

Industry standards in Flux

When considering industry standards, it is important to always view these standards in their temporal context. For example, it can make a lot of sense for certain processes or technologies to be used as industry standards for a certain period of time. However, if previously established standards become outdated due to new research findings or technological developments, companies or interest groups are faced with the challenge of picking up on these changes and internalizing them.

This can be done, for example, by updating existing standards within the industry to reflect the new developments. If a new technology or process is so fundamentally different and superior to the previous standard, there is also the possibility that a previous industry standard will be completely superseded and replaced over time. 

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Using Standards and Achieving Goals - Together with GFOS

In our networked business world, uniform industry-wide standards that create a common framework for everything from communication between individual systems to file formats and connection protocols are of enormous importance. Through the consistent use of such standards, considerable efficiency gains can be realized in procedures and processes. 

In the MES area, GFOS.Smart Manufacturing provides you with a powerful software solution that can be easily integrated into a wide variety of systems thanks to its modular structure. With intelligent solutions for connecting to machines of practically any type, GFOS creates the basis for transforming your entire production into a smart factory.

Based on the many standards implemented in GFOS.Smart Manufacturing, GFOS supports its customers with its accompanying consulting services during the introduction of the system to implement more standards in the transformation in order to optimally equip them for future digitization projects.

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