The EFPF project has undertaken standardization activities during its implementation in order to promote interoperability and support the development of new standards. Some of the specific standardization activities that were developed include drafting of documents for the CWA (common workshop agreement) 'European connected factory platform for agile manufacturing interoperability (EFPFInterOp)', which are listed in a dedicated project deliverable. The project did not encounter any significant risks or difficulties related to standardization activities, as the NSB (project partner) applied sound risk management and provided clear guidance on how to mitigate any potential risks. 

After the project's completion, the partners will continue to promote the CWA and the standard way of establishing federated platforms. Additionally, the project has produced deliverables such as the CWAs developed by the CEN-CENELEC workshop EFPFInterOp. 

To strengthen the links between research, innovation, and standardization in the future, it is important to raise awareness of existing standards. This can be done by making more people aware of the standards that are currently in place and reminding them that the standardization process is ongoing. Additionally, encouraging more collaborations between research, innovation and standardization organizations in order to promote research and innovation in a standard-compliant way can also be beneficial.

The project has shown how to integrate the architectural features of several platforms, and how to facilitate cross-platform business activities. The interoperable Data Spine is already constructed and will shortly be verified. By offering tools for data sharing, intelligence exchange, and process optimisation, the project increases the agility of the targeted value networks. A comprehensive federated platform is created by combining the traits of current platforms. Using the open-call mechanism, The Data Spine gives the federated platform an extensible component that enables the integration of other platforms and collaborative tools to be provided through a unified user experience. An ideal alignment between the EFPF tools and relevant standards is made possible by participation in standardisation committees developing standards for strategic areas, but it must be continually evaluated and updated. By participating in strategic standardisation groups, EFPF becomes more visible to important stakeholders and has easier access to information that is directly relevant to the project. The idea of a CEN Workshop Agreement as a deliverable for standardisation has directly benefited EFPF as an ecosystem of digital platforms.

The standardisation  made by QU4LITY were intended to assure proper development and support the growth of quality management and ZDM standards in particular, as well as other related clusters. This assignment is a component of work package 2's Autonomous Quality in ZDM: Vision and Specifications, which is tasked with examining the demands of stakeholders, the underlying platforms and technologies, as well as any necessary standards and interoperability requirements. The dissemination and standardisation contributions in WP9, which provide in-depth information on the current standardisation activities of the Standard Development and Standard Setting organisations, clusters, associations, and other relevant stakeholders, are completely aligned with the standardisation strategy and work in Task 2.4.  As the T2.4 leader, FHG made a significant contribution to the drafting of this Deliverable and was in charge of coordinating efforts pertaining to standards compliance, developing the T2.4 overall strategy, and coordinating and analysing the project's interoperability specification. Along with Task T9.2 experts, 

Task T2.4 coordinated this operation and exchanged the most recent findings from the standards research. Ultimately, Task 2.4 provided the following contributions to standardisation activities:
1. a set of ZDM specific requirements to verify standards compliance interoperability framework for industrial applications; as well as interoperability goals
2. standards compliance requirements on a ZDM Framework based on standards research regarding RAMI4.0 layers and classification of standards;
 

By the project's completion, QU4LITY pilots have complied with a total of 37 standards.

Standardisation helps the end client to have complete knowledge of the equipment's lifespan, which increases dependability and enables servitisation (for example, leasing) towards machine resale. The standardisation criteria that are described by RECLAIM centre on two key subjects: (1) maintenance procedures and predictive maintenance, together with (2) specifications and design for remanufacturing.

The standards that are proposed by RECLAIM are the "CWA 17492:2020-Predictive control and maintenance of data intensive industrial processes" standard, which focuses on predictive maintenance, defines machine learning / deep learning techniques for predicting process and equipment drifts, thereby providing recommendations on when to perform maintenance and the state of the machine. A set of key performance indicators is defined in "EN 15341:2019-Maintenance-Maintenance Key Performance Indicators" to quantify and improve the efficacy, efficiency, and sustainability of maintenance actions for physical assets. “prEN 17485-Maintenance-Maintenance within physical asset management-Framework for improving the value of the physical assets through their whole life cycle” and “EN16646:2015-Maintenance-Maintenance within physical asset management” introduce the physical asset management and address the role and importance of maintenance within physical asset management system during the whole life cycle of an item. The maintenance process is depicted by all the characteristics and steps of the stated processes in "EN 17007:2018-Maintenance process and associated indicator," along with the construction of a maintenance model that provides instructions for defining indicators. This is a crucial step in standardising the entire maintenance procedure. By doing so, all the maintained equipment will be comparable to one another, allowing lifetime extension tactics to be eventually more accurate in their analysis. The "ANSI RIC001.1-2016-Specifications for The Process of Remanufacturing" standard, which focuses on the definition of remanufacturing and clearly distinguishes it from other activities, is one that addresses remanufacturing standards. Additionally, it offers a benchmark, specification, and characterisation of the remanufacturing process.

The project has a focus on standardization and aims to align with existing standards as much as possible in the development of the platform and the sharing of data and information. However, the project does not adhere to a specific standard or follow a strict standardization direction. Instead, the project collaborates with organizations that have experience in standardization, such as industry associations, like the European Factories of the Future Research Association (EFFRA). By working with these associations, the project can participate in standard-related working groups more easily, as opposed to the stricter rules and processes of SDOs. As part of the Digital Manufacturing Projects cluster under EFFRA, the project participates in CEN-CENELEC standardization workshops, including a workshop on ZDM terminology. The impact of the workshop on the project is expected to be minimal as ZDM is not directly related to the core goals of the project. Additionally, the project is involved in discussions about the emerging concept of product passports: it has provided input to the European Battery Association and the European Commission on the European Digital Product Passport. They also offered guidelines for circular economy dataspaces in a white paper for the Industrial Data Spaces Association and the OPEN DEI project.

Regarding standardization, the project anticipates that its efforts will result in contributions to the development of reference implementations for product passports and dataspaces for the circular economy. Additionally, the project expects to have an impact on the individual components of its digital platform that follow specific standards. By adhering to these standards, the project aims to improve the sustainability of the data on the platform, for example, in areas such as life cycle assessment and predictive asset management. Overall, these inputs on standardisation will help to improve the efficiency and interoperability of the developed digital platform. With respect to its standardization activities, the project has identified the following elements of good practice:
 

• Including an SDO in the consortium or, if not, a partner with strong connections to SDOs. This is crucial for successful standardization work, as it allows the project to work on the target standards in a focused and effective way and eliminates the need for extensive exploratory processes for understanding the relevant standardization processes and establishing the required connections;
• Focusing on a limited number of standards (e.g. one or two). This is essential for being effective given the limited standardization resources typically available in EU-funded projects.
• The project highlighted the importance of focused work on specific standards instead of trying to engage with too many standards and SDOs;
• Ensuring regular bilateral communication between the project and the SDO throughout the project's life cycle. This is important for addressing the challenges associated with aligning project timelines with the standardization process;
• Given the vast number of technology-related standards, projects would greatly benefit from services that help them identify the most appropriate SDOs for their standardization tasks. Such a service could assist projects in coping with standard fragmentation and avoiding overlaps.