Standardization and data security

Yet the networking continues. Rob Schmit, Executive Vice President Technology & Innovation, describes one example: “A package which leaves the warehouse can also include all the necessary information: contents, status, destination, origin etc. This information is so detailed that the package can effectively tell the deliverer where it has to be unloaded along the route and the optimum place to load it.”

This means that data needs to be exchanged between companies. However, a number of obstacles have to be overcome first. The greatest obstacles are the lack of standardization and data security.

“Data has to be exchanged between different companies throughout the entire value chain”, explains Thilo Jörgl, Chief Editor of the trade magazine Logistik heute. “Companies offering closed systems for intralogistics will face problems because they increase the difficulty of or even prevent this type of data exchange.”

Standardized systems are absolutely essential in the age of Industry 4.0. “The market will soon demand open standards”, says Rob Schmit with conviction. “However, the issue of data security currently remains unresolved. That is why this needs to be a shared standard.”

Companies and the Government have already launched initiatives to address this problem. With regard to data, this means that it is no longer stored on the company’s own high-security server but in the cloud, another key element of Industry 4.0.