AQUASI - An Automated Quality Assurance Application Platform for SMEs in Handcraft Industries

Although that Cloud infrastructures are nowadays available, there is a lack of adoption by companies. While big companies with large computing divisions adopted the Cloud paradigm, small and midsize enterprises (SME) with a limited number of computer experts were scared by the complexity of the technology and by the huge investment to move to Cloud. But even for SMEs, the migration to Cloud infrastructure and the consequent usage of Open Source technology build the basement for future-proof IT systems in the era of the Internet-of-Things and Industry 4.0. At the same time, the business models of small companies in the handcraft sector like carpentry are changing too. Although their customers require personalized and sustainable products, the production is using more industrial like technologies and processes. The AQUASI project builds currently framework for SMEs using Open Source technology based on existing OSGi components to enable these companies to migrate their IT systems to the Cloud, to improve the communication and production process between collaborating partners, to collect data from IoT-sensors for further data analysis and by providing an analytical system to guarantee quality of sustainable products for more than 10 decades. This paper presents the overall architecture of the AQUASI system including a fine-grained service and communication model for Industry 4.0 projects.