Industry 4.0 Standardisation: Where Does S-BPM Fit?

Industry 4.0 denotes the shift in the production industry towards digitalising and decentralising operations from shop floor to office floor and across company networks. This paper examines the current state of standardisation in Industry 4.0 from the perspective of subject-oriented business process management (S-BPM). Specifically, eight principal characteristics of S-BPM are extracted that distinguish it from other BPM approaches. These characteristics are mapped onto existing outcomes of Industry 4.0 standardisation, including the Reference Architecture Model Industrie 4.0 (RAMI 4.0) with its associated models and standards. This mapping shows where S-BPM may fit in tomorrow's production systems, with a particular focus on possible contributions of S-BPM to Industry 4.0 standardisation.