IndustryFusion: Open Industry 4.0 solution presented live

On the occasion of the annual IBN 4.0 Community Event in Bad Wörishofen, a first sneak preview of IndustryFusion was presented - the scalable open source solution for cross-vendor networking of industry

As part of the open source project, the Industry Business Network 4.0 (IBN 4.0) is developing the IndustryFusion networking solution together with the companies Intel, Iteratec, Decent, Codecentric and 5e ecosystems. At the association's annual community event, insight was now provided into the first concrete results of the project. The event was hosted by MicroStep Europa GmbH, which sponsored the event together with plasma system manufacturer Kjellberg Finsterwalde. Both companies are members of IBN 4.0.

"IndustryFusion is the first cross-vendor open-source networking solution that creates the interoperable link between machine, factory and cloud platform," explained Dr.-Ing. Konstantin Kernschmidt, Head of Research and Development at MicroStep Europa GmbH, to the approximately 80 participants at the event. He added that work on the concrete implementation is proceeding at full speed: "We are very pleased that with the companies Intel, Iteratec, Decent, Codecentric and 5e ecosystems, five companies are already providing resources in the area of software development."

The commitment of the past months has already paid off: Together with Matt Mikulina (Business Development Industry 4.0 at MicroStep & part of the IndustryFusion project team), they showed the guests in a live demo that the basics of IndustryFusion are already running. While cutting a laser part, the participants were able to follow live via dashboard how the machine states of the systems changed: What is the power consumption of the filter system during operation? How long does the laser cutting system need to process the current job? What is the pressure at the central gas supply? IndustryFusion makes all this information digitally usable across manufacturers and processes.

"We have the best prerequisites to prevail in the competition of ideas in the area of store floor networking: Germany has a huge developer scene in the area of open source, no other country in the world is as strong in mechanical and plant engineering, and a German company is also one of the world's leaders in the area of business intelligence - namely SAP," emphasized Rainer Sträter, Head of global Platform Hosting at 1&1 IONOS, in his presentation.

In his keynote address, Christian Donitzky, Global Account Executive Energy at Intel, emphasized the need to tackle new challenges not as lone wolves but in association with like-minded people: "That's why we're actively involved in this project."

Other presentations provided exciting insights into a wide range of aspects that play a role in the networking of industry: René Steiner, Business Development Manager at Turck, presented possibilities to arm oneself against product piracy in the area of spare and wear parts by means of RFID technology. And Matej Michalko, founder of the company Decent, impressively illustrated the central role that blockchain technology will play in the area of the networked store floor. Stefan Rauch, Digital Innovation Officer at Iteratec, explained why his company also decided to contribute Manpower as part of the open source project. And Frank Wagner from Kjellberg Finsterwalde made it clear how important the topic of digitalization was in the design of the new Q plasma system from his company. George Salapa, founder of bardicredit, explained how venture capital can be raised from small investors for innovative ideas in a short time.

"The feedback we received from the participants at the 2019 Community Event impressively showed that we are on the right track," said a delighted Igor Mikulina, Chairman of the Board of IBN 4.0. He appealed to all guests to get actively involved: "The more who join our association and our open source initiative, the faster we will get there!"