Glossary

Terminology regarding Industry 4.0 (glossary of the VDI GMA technical committee 7.21 »Industry 4.0«)

The VDI GMA technical committee 7.21 »Industry 4.0«, under the direction of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ulrich Epple from the RWTH Aachen, is working on a basis for the understanding of the standard terminologies, reference models and architectural concepts for Industry 4.0.

This is happening on the basis and for further devolpment of the existing standardization in the area.

Within Industry 4.0 the languages of production and information and communication technology (ICT) are growing together. There are however differences and unclarities regarding the terminlogies of Industry 4.0 which have historical reasons. The workgroup »Terminology« under the direction of Mrs. Dr.-Ing. Miriam Schleipen from the Fraunhofer IOSB is working on a common »basis« (terminology) of Industry 4.0 in terms of linguistic and mental contructs. Existing norms and standards of the areas of ICT and production are the base for these constructs.

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E

Ecosystem

Loose community of various autonomous players connected in a network with a common goal of creating products and/or services based on a (standardized) communication and system infrastructure.

Note 1: Players can be participants of the value-added system as well as educational or research institutions, political units, standardization organisations or associations.

Note 2: Within an ecosystem, players can be engaged at the same time both in cooperation and in competition.

Note 3: An ecosystem is characterized by a common further development (co-evolution) of the players and the ecosystem.