Allied, not siloed

Mr Yigitdöl, how many times so far today have you used digital services?

Ekrem Yigitdöl: My use of smart technology starts in the morning. I use voice control to tell my house what to do depending on whether I’m working from home that day or hitting the road. When I’m driving, I communicate with my car. It puts together a digest of key news stories and compiles the day’s to-do list. And everything works smoothly.

In our day-to-day lives, digitalization works without anyone having to coordinate the various providers. So, why does the process industry need an organization like the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance to get things moving?

Ekrem Yigitdöl: Two reasons. The first is that knowledge is distributed very unevenly. One company may be quite far along in its journey, while another is yet to begin. We see ourselves as a knowledge ecosystem – a community for sharing know-how and experience. The second reason is that the industrial world is considerably more complex than the B2C world of smart watches, homes and cars.

Peter Selders: For our customers, process plant security is the number one priority. Also, quite a lot of sectors are highly regulated. It is therefore imperative to always keep process control separate from office IT. And that means we need to offer a secure, independent channel for digital instrumentation data. In process plants, many of which have been operating over multiple decades, we need digital communication infrastructure. We also have to ensure interoperability among the various components, since just about every plant contains devices, instruments and systems from multiple vendors.

How can the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance help here?

Peter Selders: Whether it’s cybersecurity, integration or interoperability, the only way we can find practicable answers for our customers is by collaborating with other manufacturers. Why? Because these matters always concern systems as a whole. Process industry digitalization requires an open technology ecosystem: standards, interfaces, architectures and innovations that are supported by as many equipment vendors, plant manufacturers, software providers and system integrators as possible. The more companies there are on board, the better the outcome for our customers.

Endress+Hauser is not only a member of the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance, but also a co-founder. How did that come about?

Peter Selders: At Endress+Hauser, trustful cooperation between equal partners is a key principle in our corporate sense of identity – because we know that’s the way to create value for our customers. So it was from this conviction that we co-founded the OI4 Alliance. We want collaboration with other companies to drive digitalization in our industry. The only way of realizing the core promise of Industry 4.0 – greater efficiency through connected processes – is to band together in strong networks. The Alliance is a platform for precisely that.

What exactly is the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance’s value-add?

Ekrem Yigitdöl: It enables the various providers involved to speak with one voice. To see how important that is, just think of the extent to which the digital economy has pivoted. Only 10 years ago, it was the norm for digital providers to develop custom solutions for their corporate customers. But that doesn’t make commercial sense anymore. Providers can no longer afford a broad range of options for catering individually to different customers. So, to get a solution, they now need to join forces with competitors who face similar challenges. And that calls for openness.

Do you think these companies are ready for that?

Ekrem Yigitdöl: This change of mindset is happening at more and more companies. Word is getting around about what the OI4 offers – namely, the ability for members to discuss common issues and create solutions without having to divulge proprietary knowledge.

Are cooperations and alliances on the rise across the process industry generally?

Peter Selders: In my view, cooperation is key for making headway with the big issues facing the process industry, be those in digitalization or sustainable transformation. It’s about mutual learning among partners, co-developing things and growing by working together. Cooperation with other companies – whether via the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance, as in the present instance, or on an individual partnership basis – always requires resources and effort. We must know when to lean in, when to compromise and when to back off. But working cooperatively pays dividends: together, we can have a greater impact and make a greater contribution.

The process industry as a whole seems to be moving really slowly on digitalization, but is that really the case?

Ekrem Yigitdöl: No, not compared with mechanical engineering or discrete manufacturing. In our experience, companies in the process industry know exactly what they want and need. Just look at their history: They have always worked with an extremely diverse range of systems. They are experienced with getting all of them communicating together and, hence, with cross-company cooperation. So there is indeed a lot of latent momentum for progress.

Peter Selders: The impression of slow progress only holds if you ignore industry-specific constraints – and if you view the digitalization of process technology in isolation. Our customers are very active in the digital technology space. And in recent years, we at Endress+Hauser have accomplished great strides in terms of interoperability, connectivity and cybersecurity. Our task now is demonstrating to customers the utility of our applications and services.

Mr Yigitdöl, can you tell us about the Alliance’s development since its founding?

Ekrem Yigitdöl: We are now an international organization with member companies from 13 nations. We started as an association run by volunteers. But we grew quickly and soon realized we needed to professionalize our structures. This is critical to our ability to help our members implement digitalization in real-world applications. And that, after all, is our core mission.

Can you give an example?

Ekrem Yigitdöl: Yes, let’s look at implementation of our open edge computing guideline as a means to laying the foundations for digitalization. Companies taking this step first need to consider whether they can meet the compliance requirements – in the critical area of cybersecurity, for example – for all processes on this platform. Testing on paper is one thing, but practical testing is quite another. This is where we at the Alliance can help. We have a compliance testing team made up of tech experts who can run hackathons to check whether the customer’s setup meets the guidelines. Two companies recently passed this testing process. One is an SME; the other is one of Germany’s largest companies. Which just goes to show that the Alliance is there to help organizations of all sizes.

Assuming digitalization one day really takes off in the industrial sector – wouldn’t the Alliance be out of a job?

Peter Selders: No, but it would be able to shift its focus. Once issues like connectivity, cybersecurity and data sovereignty are well in hand, we could, for example, focus on AI applications on the shop floor.

Ekrem Yigitdöl: I agree. And that’s the wonderful thing about digital transformation: it’s a journey, not a destination. There are always new opportunities and possibilities ahead.