Reference designations have evolved from simple component labels into structured systems that connect engineering disciplines and support the digital lifecycle of industrial assets. As AI advances, some question whether strict standards like IEC 81346 are still necessary when AI can interpret unstructured data. However, AI is more likely to strengthen the importance of RDS rather than replace it, since standardized structures, relationships, and semantics provide the context needed for reliable, explainable, and verifiable outputs across complex engineering environments.

Offshore wind projects struggle with inconsistent naming and structuring of systems, which leads to miscommunication, unclear responsibilities, and integration problems across suppliers and digital platforms. ISO/IEC 81346‑10 (RDS‑PS) solves this by providing a common language that enables interoperability and digitalization across all project stakeholders.

The ISO/IEC 81346 Standard series which defines a Reference Designation System (RDS). It is used to create a Reference model with unambiguous identifiers representing system breakdowns of systems and their elements in different views called aspects.