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EFPF (European Factory Platform) | European Connected Factory Platform for Agile Manufacturing

Summary

The European Factory Platform project (EFPF) realises a federated smart factory ecosystem by primarily interlinking 4 smart factory platforms, from the FoF-11-2016 cluster, through an open and interoperable Data Spine.

The federation of the 4 base platforms is complemented by industrial platforms, collaboration tools and smart factory systems, specifically selected to support connected factories in lot-size-one manufacturing. The federated EFPF platform delivers enhances value and reduces the barrier to innovation by providing seamless access to services and solutions that are currently dispersed.

In parallel the platform provides the necessary infrastructure, tools and support for novel service creation and validations by third parties. Further, by fostering healthy competition in the smart factory ecosystem, the EFPF platform will ensure that the needs of the evolving smart manufacturing industry are met for the long term.

The EFPF federation is offered to the manufacturing and logistic companies as an open platform; to utilise the offered functionality, experiment with innovation approaches and develop custom solutions based on specific needs. The project demonstrates the power of federation through 3 embedded large scale pilots focusing on lot-size-one manufacturing and sustainable value networks in diverse sectors, while a cross sectorial circular economy pilot is also incorporated.

The results of the pilots are openly made available as lessons learned and best practices. The creation of the European smart factory ecosystem is supported by offering interested companies technical and financial support. A dedicated budget is allocated to offer financial support to companies who are interested in using the eFactory platform to enhance their businesses.

The project is primarily composed of SMEs who have the agility to quickly react and adopt innovative solutions, while experience and market reach of big players such as Siemens is also leveraged.

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Contribution of R&I projects to standardisation
Contribution of project to standardisation
Comment:

The EFPF project has undertaken standardization activities during its implementation in order to promote interoperability and support the development of new standards. Some of the specific standardization activities that were developed include drafting of documents for the CWA (common workshop agreement) 'European connected factory platform for agile manufacturing interoperability (EFPFInterOp)', which are listed in a dedicated project deliverable. The project did not encounter any significant risks or difficulties related to standardization activities, as the NSB (project partner) applied sound risk management and provided clear guidance on how to mitigate any potential risks. 

After the project's completion, the partners will continue to promote the CWA and the standard way of establishing federated platforms. Additionally, the project has produced deliverables such as the CWAs developed by the CEN-CENELEC workshop EFPFInterOp. 

To strengthen the links between research, innovation, and standardization in the future, it is important to raise awareness of existing standards. This can be done by making more people aware of the standards that are currently in place and reminding them that the standardization process is ongoing. Additionally, encouraging more collaborations between research, innovation and standardization organizations in order to promote research and innovation in a standard-compliant way can also be beneficial.

The project has shown how to integrate the architectural features of several platforms, and how to facilitate cross-platform business activities. The interoperable Data Spine is already constructed and will shortly be verified. By offering tools for data sharing, intelligence exchange, and process optimisation, the project increases the agility of the targeted value networks. A comprehensive federated platform is created by combining the traits of current platforms. Using the open-call mechanism, The Data Spine gives the federated platform an extensible component that enables the integration of other platforms and collaborative tools to be provided through a unified user experience. An ideal alignment between the EFPF tools and relevant standards is made possible by participation in standardisation committees developing standards for strategic areas, but it must be continually evaluated and updated. By participating in strategic standardisation groups, EFPF becomes more visible to important stakeholders and has easier access to information that is directly relevant to the project. The idea of a CEN Workshop Agreement as a deliverable for standardisation has directly benefited EFPF as an ecosystem of digital platforms.

Standardisation via European Standardisation Organisations
Registered work item leading to CEN-CENELEC Workshop Agreement (CWA) or ETSI GSs (Group Specifications)
Comment:

Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: Process data management Details: Implemented for the realisation of data intensive industrial processes.

More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://www.efpf.org/
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/825075
https://www.youtube.com/@EFPFH - You Tube channel
Start date: 01-01-2019
End date: 31-12-2022
Total budget - Public funding: 13 640 264,00 Euro - 13 640 264,00 Euro
Twitter: @EFPFproject
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Cordis data

Original description

The EFPF project realises a federated smart factory ecosystem by primarily interlinking 4 smart factory platforms, from the FoF-11-2016 cluster, through an open and interoperable Data Spine. The federation of the 4 base platforms is complemented by industrial platforms, collaboration tools and smart factory systems, specifically selected to support connected factories in lot-size-one manufacturing. The federated EFPF platform delivers enhances value and reduces the barrier to innovation by providing seamless access to services and solutions that are currently dispersed. In parallel the platform provides the necessary infrastructure, tools and support for novel service creation and validations by third parties. Further, by fostering healthy competition in the smart factory ecosystem, the EFPF platform will ensure that the needs of the evolving smart manufacturing industry are met for the long term. The EFPF federation is offered to the manufacturing and logistic companies as an open platform; to utilise the offered functionality, experiment with innovation approaches and develop custom solutions based on specific needs. The project demonstrates the power of federation through 3 embedded large scale pilots focusing on lot-size-one manufacturing and sustainable value networks in diverse sectors, while a cross sectorial circular economy pilot is also incorporated. The results of the pilots are openly made available as lessons learned and best practices. The creation of the European smart factory ecosystem is supported by offering interested companies technical and financial support. A dedicated budget is allocated to offer financial support to companies who are interested in using the EFPF platform to enhance their businesses. The project is primarily composed of SMEs who have the agility to quickly react and adopt innovative solutions, while experience and market reach of big players such Siemens and others is also leveraged.

Status

SIGNED

Call topic

DT-ICT-07-2018-2019

Update Date

27-10-2022
Images
EFPF Data Spine Ecosystem.png
EFPF Dashboard.png
EFPF Architecture.png
EFF Overview.png
Geographical location(s)
Structured mapping
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Smart Manufacturing (STAND4EU)
Contribution of project to standardisation
Comment:

The EFPF project has undertaken standardization activities during its implementation in order to promote interoperability and support the development of new standards. Some of the specific standardization activities that were developed include drafting of documents for the CWA (common workshop agreement) 'European connected factory platform for agile manufacturing interoperability (EFPFInterOp)', which are listed in a dedicated project deliverable. The project did not encounter any significant risks or difficulties related to standardization activities, as the NSB (project partner) applied sound risk management and provided clear guidance on how to mitigate any potential risks. 

After the project's completion, the partners will continue to promote the CWA and the standard way of establishing federated platforms. Additionally, the project has produced deliverables such as the CWAs developed by the CEN-CENELEC workshop EFPFInterOp. 

To strengthen the links between research, innovation, and standardization in the future, it is important to raise awareness of existing standards. This can be done by making more people aware of the standards that are currently in place and reminding them that the standardization process is ongoing. Additionally, encouraging more collaborations between research, innovation and standardization organizations in order to promote research and innovation in a standard-compliant way can also be beneficial.

The project has shown how to integrate the architectural features of several platforms, and how to facilitate cross-platform business activities. The interoperable Data Spine is already constructed and will shortly be verified. By offering tools for data sharing, intelligence exchange, and process optimisation, the project increases the agility of the targeted value networks. A comprehensive federated platform is created by combining the traits of current platforms. Using the open-call mechanism, The Data Spine gives the federated platform an extensible component that enables the integration of other platforms and collaborative tools to be provided through a unified user experience. An ideal alignment between the EFPF tools and relevant standards is made possible by participation in standardisation committees developing standards for strategic areas, but it must be continually evaluated and updated. By participating in strategic standardisation groups, EFPF becomes more visible to important stakeholders and has easier access to information that is directly relevant to the project. The idea of a CEN Workshop Agreement as a deliverable for standardisation has directly benefited EFPF as an ecosystem of digital platforms.

Standardisation via European Standardisation Organisations
Registered work item leading to CEN-CENELEC Workshop Agreement (CWA) or ETSI GSs (Group Specifications)
Comment:

Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: Process data management Details: Implemented for the realisation of data intensive industrial processes.

Standards
Comment:

EFPF ensured that the Factory platform complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Aligning project objectives and activities with existing laws and standards is a crucial component of EFPF. In order to ease data sharing and standardisation procedures, it also engages in significant engagements with national and European regulation and standardisation organisations on smart industrial automation, data processing, and analytics. The question of which of the increasingly overlapping standards to use as a reference for every particular platform solution confronts researchers and technicians at EFPF. This is a typical issue in any field where standards are in conflict or overlap. 

The strategy used by EFPF is to closely monitor the development of various standardisation initiatives. With the assistance of experts (like ASI, a core partner of EFPF), RTD activities are aligned with ongoing standardisation activities with the goal of adopting existing standards and, when possible, contributing to their development. Based on the nature of technical activities in WP3 to WP7, the following aspects of EFPF are considered relevant to the ongoing standardisation and regulation activities:

  • Connecting multiple digital manufacturing tools, services and platforms through APIs and service interfaces to realise a federated platform;
  • Exchange of data by the diverse tools, systems and platforms that need to be federated through the Data Spine;
  • Establishing interconnectivity and interoperability to most widely used industrial data exchange standards and systems;
  • Smart contracting in agile value networks through the use of blockchain technology; 
  • Security and privacy of information exchanged between partners in collaboration and also, the information exchanged through the platform;
  • Linkage and interoperability of commonly used security protocols; and
  • The use of Cloud services for storage and marketplace solutions.
Standards according to SDOs
CEN-CENELEC
ASD-STAN
EN 9100 - General quality management requirements for aviation
Comment: _
ISO (International Organization for Standardization)
ISO/TC 184 Automation systems and integration
ISO/TC 184/SC 5 Interoperability, integration, and architectures for enterprise systems and automation applications
ISO 22549-1:2020 - Automation systems and integration -Assessment on convergence of informatization and industrialization for industrial enterprises -Part 1: Framework and reference model
Comment: Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: Enterprise Interoperability Details: Monitoring and adoption of the TC recommendations, due to their implications on automation platforms.
ISO/TR 23244:2020 - Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies — Privacy and personally identifiable information protection considerations
Comment: _
ISO/TC 262 Risk management
ISO 31000:2018 - Risk management — Guidelines
Comment: Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: Risk Management Details: Although a working group has been setup by the German Federal Office for Information Security (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI) to focus on the Risk Management topic but there is no current activity in this area. This represents an opportunity for EFPF (particularly the partners involved in the development of Risk Management Tool in T4.4) to support and collaborate with BSI towards the development of standards in this area. One area of interest for eFactory will be to facilitate the exchange of knowledge between BSI and NISTs Risk Management Framework.
ISO/TR 31004:2013 - Risk management — Guidance for the implementation of ISO 31000
Comment: _
ISO/TC 307 Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies
ISO/TR 23244:2020 - Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies — Privacy and personally identifiable information protection considerations
Comment: _
ISO/TR 23245 - Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies — Security risks, threats and vulnerabilities
Comment: _
ISO/IEC
ISO/IEC JTC 1
ISO/IEC JTC 1 - JTC1 level standards
ISO/IEC 20922:2016 - Information technology -Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) v3.1.1
Comment: Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: Data Brokerage Details: Adoption of MQTT (ISO/IEC 20922:2016) in the development of Data Spine (T3.2).
ISO/IEC 19464:2014 - Information technology - Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP)
Comment: Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: Cybersecurity Details: AMQP, MQTT and JSON are essential standards for application integration and core context to the building blocks of the EFPF Data Spine and platform. The uptake, interoperability and/or alignment of these standards will be carried out in the tasks dealing with message exchange in EFPF e.g. (T3.2 - Data Spine). Considering the cross-platform data model, EFPF platform sees UBL v2.2 a very possible candidate. In NIMBLE project the v2.1 version of the standard has been used; however, UBL always maintains backward compatibility when making minor standard revisions. In the scope of EFPF, the data model of NIMBLE will be upgraded to v2.2. On the other hand, UBL is a very active standard, which improves itself continually. Work has already begun on a future UBL 2.3 with a target publishing date of December 2019. The SDO will collect user requirements or usage scenarios to further develop/improve UBL data models. In the scope of EFPF standardisation activities, SRDC will submit additional user requirements and/or user usage scenarios to UBL community in order to contribute to UBL 2.3
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 Information security, cybersecurity and privacy
ISO/IEC TS 27100 - Information technology -- Cybersecurity -- Overview and concepts
Comment: _
ISO/IEC 27017:2015 - Information technology — Security techniques — Code of practice for information security controls based on ISO/IEC 27002 for cloud services
Comment: Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: Cybersecurity Details: Information Security standards for the design of security controls (T6.2) in EFPF. Interested to contribute to any of cloud security standards, e.g. ISO/IEC 27017:2015.
ISO/IEC 15408 series - Information technology -Security techniques -Evaluation criteria for IT security
Comment: _
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 Software and systems engineering
ISO/IEC TS 33052:2016 - Information technology -Process reference model (PRM) for information security management
Comment: Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: Business Workflows Details: Adoption of BPMN 2.0 as the modelling notation for workflows. Monitoring the BPMN 2.0 standard with the aim to adapt their developments in alignment with the standard
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 40 IT service management and IT governance
ISO/IEC 38500:2015 - Information technology -- Governance of IT for the organization
Comment: Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: IoT Technologies Details: Implementation of the ISO/IEC 38500 to assure that the data accountability map and associated matrix of considerations from ISO/IEC 38505-1 are fully adopted in EFPF. The data governing principles in EFPF are implemented according to the IT governance methods presented in these standards.
ISO/IEC 38506:2020 - Information technology -- Governance of IT -- Application of ISO/IEC 38500 to the governance of IT enabled investments
Comment: _
ISO/IEC TR 38505-2:2018 - Information technology — Governance of IT — Governance of data — Part 2: Implications of ISO/IEC 38505-1 for data management
Comment: _
ISO/IEC 38505-1:2017 - Information technology -- Governance of IT -- Governance of data -- Part 1: Application of ISO/IEC 38500 to the governance of data
Comment: _
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 41 Internet of Things and related technologies
ISO/IEC 30165 - Internet of Things (IoT) -Real-time IoT framework
Comment: _
ISO/IEC 30149 - Internet of things (IoT) -Trustworthiness framework
Comment: Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: IoT Technologies Details: Monitoring the ongoing development of Trustworthiness framework in the ISO/IEC NP 30149 - Internet of things (IoT). Cooperation with the ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 41 will be investigated for knowledge exchange between the technical committee and EFPF task related to Trust Mechanisms (T5.3)
ISO/IEC TR 30164:2020 - Internet of things (IoT) -Edge Computing
Comment: _
ISO/IEC TR 30164:2020 - Internet of things (IoT) -Edge Computing
Comment: _
ISO/IEC 30141:2018 - Internet of Things (loT) — Reference Architecture
Comment: _
ISO/IEC 30149 - Internet of things (IoT) -Trustworthiness framework
Comment: Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: IoT Technologies Details: Monitoring the ongoing development of Trustworthiness framework in the ISO/IEC NP 30149 - Internet of things (IoT). Cooperation with the ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 41 will be investigated for knowledge exchange between the technical committee and EFPF task related to Trust Mechanisms (T5.3)
ISO/IEC 30163 - Internet of Things (IoT) -System requirements of IoT/SN technology-based integrated platform for chattel asset monitoring supporting financial services
Comment: _
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 32 Data management and interchange
ISO/IEC 6523-1:1998 - Information technology -Structure for the identification of organisations and organisation parts -Part 1: Identification of organisation identification schemes
Comment: Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: Data Management Details: Use of this standard to provides information on how to identify organisations and organisational parts in data interchange. EFPF tasks on matchmaking (T4.5) and marketplace framework (T3.3) analyse the use of this standard at company registration phase or when exchanging business messages
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 38 Cloud Computing and Distributed Platforms
ISO/IEC 17788:2014 - Information technology -Cloud computing -Overview and vocabulary
Comment: Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: Cybersecurity Details: A comprehensive vocabulary that is relevant to all types of organisations. There is little potential to further enhance this standard and therefore the activities in EFPF project will focus on the use of this standard terminologies across project documents and dissemination channels.
IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission)
IEC TC 65 Industrial-process measurement and control and automation
IEC TC 65/SC 65E Devices and integration in enterprise systems
IEC 62541 series - OPC unified architecture
Comment: Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: Machine level communication Details: Adoption of OPC UA standard for machine level communication, particularly in the context of their Symphony platform that will be linked with EFPF. One other partner is interested in OPC UA and in particular on how it will be used by the new Administration Shell standard. A workflow tool development (T4.6) will support OPC UA based communication for linking multiple shop-floor assets. Another partner is an OPC Foundation member, has actively participated in VDMA-led efforts for OPC UA information model standardisation within the VDMA Robotics and Integrated Assembly Solutions Sector Groups and will monitor ongoing activities. They will support EFPF partners in the adoption/uptake/alignment of OPC UA with in relevant development tasks (e.g. T3.2, T3.5, T4.1). OPC UA is the core Industrie 4.0 communication protocol for machine connectivity, both with supervisory systems and other machines. Relevant domain specific standard extensions are developed in committees associated with the OPC Foundation before being submitted for formal standardisation. The German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA) strongly promotes the use of OPC UA among all its member companies and committees.
IEC PAS 63088:2017 - Smart manufacturing -Reference architecture model industry 4.0 (RAMI4.0)
Comment: Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: IoT Technologies Details: Standardisation activities on the device integration with IoT platforms. The analysis will be used to inform the design of Data Spine and align the development of Data Spine with latest standards on IoT integration.
IEC TC 65 WG 10 Security for industrial process measurement and control - Network and system security
IEC 62443 series - Security for industrial automation and control systems - ISA 99
Comment: Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: IoT Technologies Details: Standardisation activities on the device integration with IoT platforms. The analysis carried out is used to inform the design of Data Spine and align the development of Data Spine with latest standards on IoT integration.
IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IEEE P2413:2019 - Architectural Framework for the Internet of Things (IoT)
Comment: Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: IoT Technologies Details: Used in the development of Data Spine. Monitoring this standard will also benefit CNet commercial activities in the area of IoT devices
Other standards or related resources
Software tools for Connected Factory Exchange SDK Version 1.0.5 - Software tools for Connected Factory Exchange SDK Version 1.0.5
Comment: Associated to EPFP Reference Architecture: Data Management and SDK Details: The identification of the standard provides impetus to EFPF (T5.5) to align the relevant application development activities (through the SDK in T5.5) with the IPC-CFX standard. The associated open source Software tools for Connected Factory Exchange SDK� (Version 1.0.5) will be relevant in this regard. Relevant EFPF partners (e.g. CMS) will also investigate joining the IPC-CFX movement in order to contribute towards the further enhancement/development of the standard e.g. making it relevant to the manufacturing applications to be developed in the EFPF project.