From data chaos to an open ecosystem

They are the nightmare of digitization: data silos, missing interfaces, technology mix. They not only hinder technical progress, but they also make it difficult to scale new business models. The OMP (Open Manufacturing Platform) initiative is therefore working on the end-to-end standardization of data as the basis for Industry 4.0. As a factory specialist, Leadec has been part of the community since 2021.

Open collaboration unleashes true innovative power – this is how the community idea of the Open Manufacturing Platform (OMP) can be described. Founded in 2019 by BMW Group and Microsoft, technologists from 28 manufacturing companies, systems integrators, and other specialists from a wide range of industries are now working toward a major goal: the end-to-end standardization of data in order to drive digitization along the entire value chain. And the potential is huge, because with the rapidly increasing number of industrial data acquired, the demands on their quality and further processing are also growing.
 

The service perspective

Leadec contributes to the OMP initiative as a neutral technical service provider and factory specialist along the entire value chain. “Our all-round view of modern manufacturing provides us with an understanding of the processes, the challenges and, of course, an idea of where Industry 4.0 is heading,” says Henry Kohlstruck, Executive President Leadec Europe. At the heart of the platform are working groups where members can contribute and use codes, reference architectures, ideas, publications and other output. Leadec is actively involved in three working groups. The “ATS Core Services (Autonomous Transport Systems)” Working Group, for example, develops logistics services related to internal transport with the help of autonomous robots. The “IoT Connectivity” Working Group aims to connect IoT devices and machines to the cloud in such a way that production lines can be digitized and cloud-based IoT applications can be improved. To make the results from the teams as broadly usable as possible, the “Manufacturing Reference Architecture” Working Group is creating a scalable architectural blueprint along a wide variety of factory applications.