"The SPS/IPC/Drives Show just closed its doors and I must say it was an exciting show. Of course, Industrie 4.0 and IIoT dominated the fair from the 30 thousand foot view, but the terms tend to be too vague and everyone has their own views about what these describe," reports Karsten Schneider, PI Chairman.

The PI Booth at the SPS/IPC/Drives Show hosted hundreds of show visitors seeking information on PROFINET, PROFIBUS, and IO-Link. Trade press editors flocked to the PI Press Conference on Wednesday morning for additional news.

At an early stage, PI along with users, such as NAMUR, started to intensively work out how PROFINET can be deployed in all areas of the process industry. Very quickly it became clear that PI can offer with PROFINET a complete solution package.

PI (PROFIBUS & PROFINET International) is making strong progress on Industrie 4.0. Main work is done in the teams of the PI working group "I4.0@PI" with sub-groups for individual topics. The requirements are being closely harmonized with users and senior experts from the various participating companies.

As the growth of PROFINET continues, new customer requirements for additional Asset Management functions have been incorporated. Added is the ability to record assets to make maintenance and operation easier despite increasing complexity of processes and related machines.