多维用户联盟和伙伴关系是工业自动化领域的明确趋势，以应对追求各种工业互联网（IIOT）和行业4.0举措来数字化其运营的倡议。这些伙伴关系来自于实现中没有一两家公司可以在数字化方面提供市场需求的一切。
Despite all the interest in IIoT and Industry 4.0 from end users and the growing array of alliances to support it, there remains a certain level of reticence among end users to make the leap.
“There’s been a slow adoption of Industry 4.0 because no large manufacturing companies want to cope with an ecosystem of multiple cloud systems—and there is no one cloud system available that can do it all today,” according to Patrice Favennec, senior vice president of sales, IOT, at Hilscher, a supplier of industrial communication and networking technologies. “These users want a simplified interface between the different systems they need. They want us — industrial technology suppliers — to build APIs between different systems.”
要解决这个市场现实，Hilscher，以及Arvos GmbH，Balluff，Beckhoff，Endress + Hauser，GebhardtFördertechnik，IFM，Kuka，Multivac，Pepperl + Fuchs，SAP，SAP，Schmidtsche Schack，Samson和Wika Alexander Wiegand已形成Open Industry 4.0 Alliance（oi4）。
注意到，许多联盟的创始成员位于中欧中部，费旺克表示，虽然联盟始于那里，但目的是采取IT全球。
“This is a new approach,” said Favennec, describing the alliance as being focused on the interoperability of the members’ products and services, as well as on applying those technologies to digitize end user operations. End users and OEMs are invited to join the alliance to avail themselves of the interoperability efforts conducted by member suppliers.
The main goal of the alliance is “to take existing solutions and make them interoperable to speed up adoption of Industry 4.0,” said Favennec. “It’s not about recreating existing semantic models—everything we need already exists. This alliance is based on using existing technologies to execute on end users’ specific digital plans.”
To do this, OI4 members have designed a framework consisting of four layers connecting the physical assets on the plant floor to OI4’s central “Open Manufacturers Cloud Platform.” Layer One is “Open Edge Connectivity,” where widely used industrial communication protocols such as OPC UA, HART, Profibus/Profinet, Modbus, EtherCat and others reside. This protocol layer can be connected via OPC UA, MQTT, TCP/IP or other networking options to Layer Two — “Open Edge Computing” — where OI4 member and customized apps, along with edge hardware, reside in a containerized enterprise computing platform.
OI4’s secure cloud-to-edge connector connects Layer Two to Layer Three — “Open Operator Cloud Platform” — where cloud accessible versions of OI4 member and customized apps are positioned. These apps are accessible via OI4’s open application programming interface (API) and integration services. Level Four is OI4’s “Common Central Cloud,” which houses a central asset repository and associated asset intelligence network.
This framework provides a common understanding for what end-to-end data semantic models mean for security, how to publish digital assets in central repository, and how to build the APIs for every level of the framework into a customer’s manufacturing operations, said Favennec.
oi4强调这一框架对于解决最终用户关于以任何数字化倡议向前移动的担忧至关重要。在一份白皮书中，与汉诺威·梅尔的OI4公告一起发布，联盟解释说，他们在这盟联盟中举办了自己，以解决最终用户的主要问题。白皮书将这些问题描述为旋转“轻松的资产船上，具有跨越用户自己的边缘和工业4.0 / IIOT云平台的常见数据语义;并实现与多个资产供应商的无缝双向协作，用于内容和数据。目前，如果客户投资于不同平台的不同供应商的行业4.0 / IIOT解决方案，则面临上述挑战的负担必须单独携带。“
OI4框架旨在通过建立开放的框架来克服最终用户以及技术供应商的这些挑战，从中提供可互操作的技术和服务。
As OI4 describes in its white paper, “operators of factories, plants and warehouses perceive that large automation vendor-led alliances or platform initiatives lack the support from smaller, competitive equipment builders, making them reluctant to hand over operational data to their mega vendor. On the other hand, the midmarket alliances are not creating sufficient impact due to lack of global go-to-market capabilities and limited adoption. The ambition [of the alliance] is to focus on jointly creating customer value.” With its open framework and focus on the end user — regardless of size — OI4 seeks to allay the concerns fostering industry inertia around digitization.
One highlight of the OI4 presentation at Hannover Messe was a slide that clearly exemplified the transparency of the alliance. The slide (which also accompanies this article) denotes each place along the four layers of the OI4 framework to which each technology supplier applies. This makes it easy for end users and OEMs to visualize what members offer what technologies to close the gaps in their digitization effort.
“意图不是针对OI4成员统治客户与其解决方案之间的关系，而是在客户特定云和OI4云应用程序之间创建API链接，”Favennec表示。“客户决定了什么数据离开了云环境。”
Favennec also described the alliance’s egalitarian pricing model, which is designed to encourage high levels of end user participation in the alliance. “Founding members and participating members pay a set fee to join. For users, however, the cost is aligned to their revenues, so it does not preclude smaller companies from joining,” he said.
