An industrial evaluation of an Industry 4.0 reference architecture demonstrating the need for the inclusion of security and human components

The research presented in this paper looks at evaluating RAMI4.0, a Research Architecture (RA) designed for Industry 4.0, through the representation of an existing Cyber-Physical System’s (CPSs) key functionality. The use case represented is that of a UK firm refurbishing End of Life (EoL) IT devices for business clients. EoL refurbishment is a domain with many complexities due to an inherent business model which results in varying quantities, types and conditions of received devices. These uncertainties can generally not be addressed until the devices have arrived in the facility and are inspected. RAs are an important tool used in system development to represent functionality, this representation should be high level and allow the easy communication of key concepts for not only client-to-developers and developer-to-developer but also either to an audience. An appropriate RA will help industrialists to understand what Industry 4.0 means to them (i.e. increased flexibility and control) and the functionality of any system potentially being invested in. The results of this research included two proposals for the extension of RAMI4.0 regarding the representation of security and humans within the systems. While Industry 4.0 focusses on CPSs this work also makes a further recommendation that the focus of modelling should be shifted to Cyber-Physical Human Systems (CPHSs) to ensure correct consideration of the humans within the system.