IEC 61499: The Industrial Automation Standard for Portability that Unleashes Industry 4.0

Global economic and market uncertainties are forcing manufacturers to rapidly adjust to more frequent, high-speed changes in demand and in raw material and energy pricing. Such trends are prompting process manufacturers to rethink the way industrial automation systems need to work. Part of that reassessment involves an increasing need to accommodate increased product variants and shorter sourcing, production, and product delivery lifecycles.

Industrial organizations and their stakeholders also face the challenge of accommodating significant workforce changes as Baby Boomers retire and take their industrial automation systems knowledge with them. The new, Digital Native generation of employees coming in expect that knowledge will be embedded in the systems they will be required to work with.