Question: Mr. Schmelter, Mr. Oel, Mr. Mülhens, you have all been advocating the ECLASS data standard for years. How do you intend to convince people?
Josef Schmelter: When we started the topic of classification and central product data provision over 20 years ago, many players on the market feared that users would compare products from different manufacturers and opt for the one that costs slightly less. The situation today is that if you don't support ECLASS, your products will be used less and less. This is because ECLASS enables manufacturers to provide a data set for their products that contains so much information that users hardly need to make any manual entries. Only one standard needs to be supported, as ECLASS can be read by all major tools on the market.
Peter Oel: That's right. The ECLASS Standard enables manufacturers to meet their product documentation obligations in a standardized and secure way. Without such a standard, the reliable transfer of product data into a CAE system, which is urgently required for a smooth and modern engineering process, is hardly possible. The proprietary formats of the tool systems are too different.
Stefan Mülhens: I see it in a similar way. ECLASS helps to create reliability. Every new product is only used by planners and system builders, for example, if the functionalities are quickly apparent without having to pore over catalogs. Time is money! For us as a software manufacturer, the optimal situation is to be able to rely 100 percent on the manufacturer's data. ECLASS Advanced specifies the classification and documentation in such detail that we do not have to make any additions.
Frage: Sind Komponentenhersteller nicht mehr wettbewerbsfähig, wenn sie ECLASS nicht unterstützen?
Schmelter: Wenn ich genug Mitarbeitende einsetze, die für alle Systeme die Daten pflegen, bin ich vielleicht noch wettbewerbsfähig. Aber wer hat diese personellen Ressourcen?
Mülhens: Selbst bei genügend Manpower glaube ich nicht, dass die Qualität, Tiefe und allgemeingültige Verständlichkeit dieser Daten lieferbar wären. ECLASS bietet die Möglichkeit, alles in einem großen Detailreichtum zu beschreiben. Die eigenen Formate, die einige Hersteller nutzen, gestatten diese genaue Beschreibung nicht.
Question: How important is the requirement for details for the verification obligations that planners have to fulfill today?
Oel: The topic has been a perennial issue for 40 years: How do I translate normative specifications into a drawing and the corresponding verification required? It has to be checked, for example, whether the voltage and short-circuit strengths in the systems are correct or whether the heat losses are manageable. In building automation in particular, this is still often done manually and in a rudimentary way. In the event of damage, however, the cause and the insurance claim must be clarified by lawyers. If you work without digital support, you simply can't prove anything directly.
Schmelter: Documentation during house construction means a lot of additional work. In most cases, there is not enough time for this, which makes it difficult for the industry to comply with regulations and standards in a cost-effective manner. The additional time required would also result in high costs. Using the ECLASS Standard, which provides unambiguous data, would significantly reduce the effort involved, making it possible to document flawlessly and comply with all relevant rules in future.
Question: Now you're talking about building automation. Wouldn't BIM suffice here?
Oel: BIM is an industry-specific process for creating and managing information for a construction project. Due to the country-specific building laws, the process must also be viewed from a socio-political and structural perspective. However, the structures in Germany have a different basis than in America, for example, due to the status quo. All trades have to work together to achieve a good result, while at the same time complying with the many rules that apply in Germany. Assistance systems are therefore becoming increasingly important. But they need data, which requires standardization. In the past, we have standardized the components from the manufacturer's point of view, including for engineering. Now we also need to look at the data flow processes in the BIM workflows. ECLASS is the right approach here because the Standard enables cross-sector, integrative description across all trades involved in construction and operation.
Question: Mr. Schmelter, you have been the Head of the ECLASS Cross Expert Group CAx since 2015. How is the working group organized?
Schmelter: It is made up of manufacturers of electrical industry devices and suppliers of engineering tools. Our task is not only to define which product information should be describable in ECLASS, but also to advise on how individual fields should be filled. For example, values such as the height, width and depth of a device can be specified differently depending on its orientation. So you have to define how the properties are to be used, and that is what the working group is working on.
Question: What have you been able to implement?
Mülhens: One topic that we have recently implemented concerns circuit diagram symbols, which can now be described in ECLASS. This means that the manufacturers supply the references to IEC/ECLASS standard symbols or function-specific complex symbols and the user no longer has to create or maintain them themselves. At the same time, we do not need to add them to the system to ensure that a symbol appears in the circuit diagram when planning in ProPlan. This is particularly important for complex products with many functionalities.
Schmelter: One of the enhancements in Version 13 concerns the color code of cables, which we can now map. The manufacturers provide data on the colors of the wires in a cable. The color codes are described in compliance with standards. It has been precisely defined how the color codes must be named. Even if this property seems rather small, it was missing and we have made sure that the corresponding data can be exchanged and used today.
Question: Mr. Mülhens, what opportunities does the wider use of the data standard offer for the development of your software?
Mülhens: One example that we are currently working on is the use of Machine Learning and AI: this involves automated assignments, value determination and checks. In future, tools such as MatClass will indicate when new items have been described and evaluated differently to previous ones. The machine has learned that fields need to be filled with certain values and can both make suggestions and point out that there are deviations, perhaps even in a comparison of articles. This machine learning works better the more data is available. And the dissemination of the Standard with its precise and detailed data is crucial for this.
Question: Now we are already looking to the future. How do you think the industry will develop?
Oil: The Carbon Footprint and Digital Product Passports will become drivers for ECLASS. The Ecodesign Regulation is due to be revised at EU level by 2025. In future, products will have to be designed in such a way that they can be reused, upcycled and downcycled. There will be a large amount of data that will have to be made available in a standardized way in order to evaluate a product in accordance with the new law. The technical material characteristics against the background of the circular economy will take on a new dimension. It is no longer just the price that is decisive, but above all the environmental relevance.
Mülhens: I also think that the Product Carbon Footprint and the Digital Product Passport are important topics. In ECLASS, we have already created many of the prerequisites for describing the necessary data, but now we also need the support of manufacturers, who need to set up an infrastructure to provide the relevant information. There is still some catching up to do here, as this is a fairly extensive task. This makes it all the more important for manufacturers to get started now.
This news is based on an article by IT&Production. You can find the original article (in German) here: "Der CO2-Fußabdruck und digitale Produktpässe werden Treiber für ECLASS" - IT&Production