Sino-German White Paper on Functional Safety for Industrie 4.0 and Intelligent Manufacturing

The white paper sheds light on the common Sino-German view on functional safety issues in the Industrie 4.0/Intelligent Manufacturing environment. It explains the basic concept of traditional technical safety, which used to be based on mechanical and electronic technology. The paper elaborates on the rising complexity and interconnection among systems, outlining how the overall infrastructure has become more susceptible to internal failures and cyberattacks. To this extent, the paper analyses existing standards, specifications and provides recommendations to achieve safety for Industrie 4.0/Intelligent Manufacturing. It concludes that existing international standards need to be interpreted and amended to cover new issues and hazards. It also refers to the potential integration of safety and security.

By facilitating the harmonization of key standards at the international level, the Sino-German Standardisation Cooperation enables industry and consumers alike to integrate into seamless modern global value chains. Within five years of cooperation, both sides were able to reach joint agreements on a variety of topics at the international level and handed in joint standard proposals.

The Sino-German Whitepaper on Functional Safety is jointly elaborated by the technical experts involved in the Sub-Working Group Industrie 4.0/Intelligent Manufacturing (SWG I4.0/IM) of the Sino-German Standardization Cooperation Committee. The SWG I4.0/IM is technically led by the Standardization Council Industrie 4.0 (SCI 4.0) and its Chinese partner National Intelligent Manufacturing Standardization Administration Group (IMSG).

The cooperation is politically steered by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the Standardization Administration of China (SAC) and the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi).

As a next step, the technical experts will start discussions on the effect given by emerging and highly innovative technologies such as Artificial Intelligence that are set to touch many aspects of functional safety.

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