Companies are partners in a new initiative to drive open
industrial IoT development and help grow a community to build
future Industry 4.0 solutions
- Technology framework and open community to share smart factory
solutions across the automotive and manufacturing sectors to
significantly accelerate future industrial IoT developments.
- Utilizing industrial use cases and sample code, community
members and partners will have the capability to develop their own
services and solutions.
- Built on the Microsoft Azure industrial IoT cloud platform,
the Open Manufacturing Platform is intended to provide a reference
architecture with open source components based on open industrial
standards and an open data model.
- By the end of 2019, the goal is to have an initial set of four
to six partners in place and a minimum of 15 use cases rolled out
into select production environments.
- Manufacturers and suppliers, including companies from outside
the automotive industry, will be encouraged to join the
community.
HANNOVER, Germany, April 2, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, at
Hannover Messe, Microsoft Corp. and the BMW Group announced a new
community initiative to enable faster, more cost-effective
innovation in the manufacturing sector. In manufacturing today,
production and profitability can be hindered by complex,
proprietary systems that create data silos and slow productivity.
The Open Manufacturing Platform (OMP) is designed to break down
these barriers through the creation of an open technology framework
and cross-industry community. The initiative is expected to support
the development of smart factory solutions that will be shared by
OMP participants across the automotive and broader manufacturing
sectors. The goal is to significantly accelerate future industrial
IoT developments, shorten time to value and drive production
efficiencies while addressing common industrial challenges.
Built on the Microsoft Azure industrial IoT cloud platform, the
OMP is intended to provide community members with a reference
architecture with open source components based on open industrial
standards and an open data model. In addition to facilitating
collaboration, this platform approach is designed to unlock and
standardize data models that enable analytics and machine learning
scenarios — data that has traditionally been managed in proprietary
systems. Utilizing industrial use cases and sample code, community
members and other partners will have the capability to develop
their own services and solutions while maintaining control over
their data.
"Microsoft is joining forces with the BMW Group to transform
digital production efficiency across the industry," said
Scott Guthrie, executive vice
president, Microsoft Cloud + AI Group. "Our commitment to building
an open community will create new opportunities for collaboration
across the entire manufacturing value chain."
With currently over 3,000 machines, robots and autonomous
transport systems connected with the BMW Group IoT platform, which
is built on Microsoft Azure's cloud, IoT and AI capabilities, the
BMW Group plans to contribute relevant initial use cases to the OMP
community. One example is the company's use of their IoT platform
for the second generation of its autonomous transport systems in
the BMW Group plant in Regensburg, Germany, one of 30 BMW Group production and
assembly sites worldwide. This use case has enabled the BMW Group
to greatly simplify its logistics processes via central
coordination of the transport system, creating greater logistics
efficiency. In the future, this and other use cases—such as digital
feedback loops, digital supply chain management and predictive
maintenance—will be made available and, in fact, developed further
within the OMP community.
"Mastering the complex task of producing individualized premium
products requires innovative IT and software solutions," said
Oliver Zipse, member of the Board of
Management of BMW AG, Production. "The interconnection of
production sites and systems as well as the secure integration of
partners and suppliers are particularly important. We have been
relying on the cloud since 2016 and are consistently developing new
approaches. With the Open Manufacturing Platform as the next step,
we want to make our solutions available to other companies and
jointly leverage potential in order to secure our strong position
in the market in the long term."
The OMP is the next evolution in the BMW Group's and Microsoft's
long-standing technology partnership and mutual commitment to
innovation and creating industry-wide opportunities for collective
success. Through the OMP, community members will have greater
opportunities to unlock the potential of their data, allowing them
to build and integrate industrial solutions more quickly and
securely and, in turn, benefit from contributing to and learning
from other organizations.
The OMP will be designed to address common industrial challenges
such as machine connectivity and on-premises systems integration.
This will facilitate the reuse of software solutions among OEMs,
suppliers and other partners, significantly reducing implementation
costs. For example, an ROS-based robotics standard for autonomous
transport systems for production and logistics will be contributed
to the OMP for everyone to use. The OMP will be compatible with the
existing Industry 4.0 reference architecture, leveraging the
industrial interoperability standard OPC UA.
"This is very good news for the manufacturing industry," said
Stefan Hoppe, president and CEO of
the OPC Foundation. "The use of open international industry
standards such as OPC UA in the OMP community enables
manufacturers, machine builders and suppliers to integrate their
existing equipment and systems efficiently and securely. For a long
time, companies have promoted proprietary, closed ecosystems — the
OMP commitment to open development will shape tomorrow's
manufacturing."
The underlying platform will continue to evolve over time, along
with manufacturing requirements, to incorporate new innovations
including areas of analytics, artificial intelligence and digital
feedback loops.
The broader OMP community is being formed now, with recruitment
of additional partners underway. The OMP Advisory Board is expected
to be in operation with an initial set of four to six partners in
place and a minimum of 15 use cases rolled out into select
production environments by the end of 2019. The two initial
partners, Microsoft and the BMW Group, encourage other
manufacturers and suppliers, including companies from outside the
automotive industry, to join the community.
About the BMW Group
With its four brands BMW, MINI,
Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad, the BMW Group is the world's leading
premium manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles and also
provides premium financial and mobility services. The BMW Group
production network comprises 30 production and assembly facilities
in 14 countries; the company has a global sales network in more
than 140 countries.
In 2018, the BMW Group sold over 2,490,000 passenger vehicles
and more than 165,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax
in the financial year 2018 was €9.815 billion on revenues amounting
to €97.480 billion. As of 31 December
2018, the BMW Group had a workforce of 134,682
employees.
The success of the BMW Group has always been based on long-term
thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore
established ecological and social sustainability throughout the
value chain, comprehensive product responsibility and a clear
commitment to conserving resources as an integral part of its
strategy.
www.bmwgroup.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BMWGroup
Twitter: http://twitter.com/BMWGroup
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/BMWGroupView
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bmwgroup
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bmw
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables digital transformation
for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its
mission is to empower every person and every organization on the
planet to achieve more.
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