Distributed Approach for Integration in Industrial Systems

Digital thread, that is interoperability between the different layers of companies' organization and throughout their processes, is a key target for Industrie 4.0 or SmartManufacturing. The historical drivers of integration, PLM and the Automation Pyramid (ISA-95), were decisive to structure processes and organizations when no technical solution to reach global interoperability existed. However, now, thanks to the maturity of new technologies at every level (growing computing power in machines, efficient communication protocols, reliable heterarchical architecture), new solutions and architecture models are emerging. After a broad state of the art, this paper intents to discuss the opportunities brought by new architecture model such as RAMI 4.0, Service Oriented Architecture and Multi Agent Systems applied to industrial use cases, and the necessary questioning of the hierarchical integration approaches that are still prevalent.