To further advance standardization cooperation between China and Germany in smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0, the 4th Meeting of the Sino-German Standardization Working Group on Smart Manufacturing / Industry 4.0 and the Meeting of the Sino-German Standardization Cooperation Committee were held in Qingdao from June 26 to 30, 2017. More than 150 representatives attended the event, coming from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany, German national standardization bodies, the German Embassy in China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the Standardization Administration of China, the Ministry of Commerce, as well as relevant industrial associations, research institutions and enterprises of both countries.

The meeting focused on six core topics: mutual recognition of reference architectures for smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0, network communication and edge computing, functional safety, cybersecurity, predictive maintenance, and practical application cases. Thanks to joint efforts of Chinese and German experts, consensus was reached on a range of matters, including the formulation of the Standardization Roadmap for Predictive Maintenance in Smart Manufacturing / Industry 4.0, the establishment of a sub-working group on mutual recognition and demand analysis of relevant standards for smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0, the drafting of an initial report on application cases, and research on market demands, ongoing industrial practices and standardization work of edge computing. A meeting minutes document was signed to record all consensus reached.

Jointly initiated and established by the Chinese and German governments in May 2015, the Sino-German Standardization Working Group on Smart Manufacturing / Industry 4.0 has served as a vital platform for bilateral exchanges on smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0 since its founding.