As world leaders in the field of manufacturing technology and production systems, Germany and Japan have made great efforts to promote smart manufacturing research, developments, and industrial implementations. Germany and Japan have agreed to cooperate on standardization in the field of smart manufacturing by sharing the long-term view for smart manufacturing and focusing on common pertinent topics.
The aim of the collaboration between the Standardization Council Industrie 4.0, Plattform Industrie 4.0 and their Japanese partner, the Robot Revolution & Industrial IoT Initiative is to take advantage of the economic potential of digitalization, achieving a smooth transition into the digital age in both countries and maximising the positive effects on the competitive strength of industry in both countries too.
The German and Japanese partners agreed to create a common future vision of smart manufacturing standardization and establish a mechanism of proactive information exchange and to work transparently together. Furthermore, the partners agreed to examine substantive areas in standardization Industrie 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), based on concrete conceptual work e.g. the elaboration of the various Usage Views to achieve a common understanding on the topic of use cases.
These substantive areas were described and published as first edition of the common strategy in 2017. Today, based on the past activities, achievements and significantly changing global circumstances, both partners agreed to “upgrade” the collaboration as the second stage of the common strategy.