Report on standards (a) used and (b) generated in Z-Fact0r

Standardisation is an essential issue as only if the developed technology within Z-Factor can be standardized, broad technology take-up outside of the consortium and after the end of the project can be guaranteed. As a result, exist-ing but also future consensus-based standards, focusing on open-standards, will create a firm basis for technical procurement, support communication through standardized terminology and concepts and ensure interoperability, fitness for use and market relevance. Drawing up concepts at an early stage by a consensus-based standardization process and in close cooperation is one of the central requirements for the success of innovative manufacturing approaches and for a rapid implementation in industrial practice. Z-Fact0r will establish informal contact with other relevant projects and networks in this field ensuring a good level of information flow and mutual awareness be-tween the project and the above bodies in order to assess standardisation opportunities and sharing knowledge and best-practices that foster the uptake of technologies. Representing bodies of such projects will be invited to partici-pate in workshops and other dissemination activities to further enhance cooperation levels among projects. This way Z-Fact0r will support new regulations and standards to accelerate adoption of the new manufacturing systems, and hence bring value back to the EU. In order to do so, the standardization procedures within Z-Fact0r will be done in two steps. In the first step, already existing standards will be evaluated (as exposed above) in term of their applicability to Z-Factor technologies. With the compatibility to existing standards, Z-Factor technologies can be implemented easily. Furthermore, the ac-ceptance of Z-Factor in the market will be much better. In a second step, the technologies developed within the project will be standardized. This especially holds true for the interfaces and for the communication protocol. Also, standardised UI libraries that incorporate easy-to-access symbols and buttons for aged workers will be incorporate in production systems.