Know-how Protection and Software Architectures in Industry 4.0

Abstract In process design and development, engineers use MS-Excel and process simulators to create the engineering documents like heat and mass balances, process flow diagrams, equipment specifications, and data sheets. Manufacturers typically use their own programs for the design of the equipment. Starting with the basic design, asset management systems network and coordinate all the crafts involved in the planning and operation of a plant across sites and across the entire life cycle of the plant. In process control, real-time optimization (RTO) can be employed to determine the optimum control set points for current operating conditions and constraints. Especially for complex processes, a dynamic model of the process should be developed so that the control system can be properly designed. This paper takes the process simulator’s perspective. It builds on previous work by (Fricke and Schoneberger, 2015) about interfaces in Industry 4.0 (technical aspects) and enhances it by an analysis of the business value that players in process engineering add through their activities and shows how to protect know-how in process engineering (commercial aspects). The Process Simulation Cup example (Chemstations, 2016a) shows how software architecture aligns the technical and the commercial aspects.