Organization Overview
The VDMA is an advisor, lobbyist, network platform, sparring partner and voice of the mechanical and plant engineering industry – and has been for more than 130 years.
It represents over 3,600 mainly small and medium size member companies in the engineering industry, making it one of the largest and most important industrial associations in Europe. Regional individuality and international orientation are valuable characteristics that make the association particularly attractive for its members in the machinery and equipment manufacturing industry.
VDMA coordinates the activities of multiple OPC joint working groups that define a common, cross-industry language between machines and systems. See working groups.
Position to OPC UA
Henrik Schunk, VDMA Vice-President
As an open interface standard, OPC UA is a central prerequisite for the successful introduction of Industrie 4.0 into production. OPC UA ensures the interoperability of machines and systems that can be linked and rearranged as needed via plug & work – independently of platforms and manufacturers.
To make this vision a reality, the VDMA is working with its member companies to develop industry-specific OPC UA Companion Specifications, thus creating a global language for production.
The VDMA coordinates the activities of about 40 working groups that define a common, cross-industry language between machines and plants in the form of “OPC UA Companion Specifications”.
„Intelligently networked production must be seamlessly standardized by OPC UA specifications. This can only succeed if all subsectors of the mechanical and plant engineering industry pull together. “
Andreas Faath, Managing Director Machine Information Interoperability,
VDMA – OPC board member
OPC UA is the only interoperability solution that is widely adopted and fulfilling the requirements of the mechanical engineering industry. Therefor VDMA and OPC Foundation joined forces to develop “The Global Production Language” to standardize the semantics of shop-floor information based on OPC UA.
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