BMW and Microsoft launched the independent “Open Manufacturing Platform” (OMP) initiative at the Hannover Messe in 2019. Its stated goal was to develop Industry 4.0 solutions together. The approach seemed to be well-received: The project was joined most recently by Bosch, ZF Friedrichshafen AG and Anheuser-Busch InBev . The initiative supports cross-sectoral cooperation, data and knowledge exchange and access to new technologies. There are also work groups for specific topics, such as IoT connectivity, central services for autonomous transport systems or semantic data models – here, amongst other things, a model is being developed to prepare machine and manufacturing data in a comprehensible way and to illustrate their connections. The OMP is always open to new partners from the manufacturing and supplier branches.

On the other hand, another industrial association appears to be falling out of balance. The “FAZ” newspaper reported that Daimler, a founding member of the “Charter of Trust”, left the association against Internet crime. However, the semiconductor manufacturer Infineon, the communications service provider NTT and the Hasso Plattner Institute joined the association. The newspaper claimed that the members were having difficulties defining and implementing their goals.