In future, automation technology suppliers will also provide standards-compliant administration shells for their products. However, this requires a wide variety of information sources that are already available, or are yet to be created, to be integrated with the manufacturer. Using an Enterprise Knowledge Graph based on Semantic Web technology offers an opportunity to get a grip on the associated complexity.
The requirements on the administration shell are undergoing continuous further development. But it is becoming increasingly clear that the diversity and complexity of aspects of an administration shell are difficult to represent with a classic relational data model when it comes to variance and dynamics, especially considering the long-term maintenance costs for such data models that arise as the model requirements change again and again.
Semantic Web technology promises suppliers a possible escape from the dilemma this entails. We are all familiar with the World Wide Web; the Semantic Web was designed to expand it, making it easier to exchange data among computers and machines around the world and to use this data. What is crucial in this approach is to describe not only content, but also semantics, i.e., the meaning of the data – hence the term “Semantic Web.”