Autor: Engelbert Westkämper

The industrial production hast o react on internal and external turbulences. The transformability of the production is especially important in the field of the multi-variant series production. Transformability in factories is reached by using a fast operating and reacting planning which includes classic methods of the structured factory planning as well as modern digital tools. Such a planning is reached on a shared database and transfers results of former planning’s as well as simulations. So the planning is done in shorter time and has a higher quality. To be able to realize the planning the real factory must be reconfigurable to get an adaptive production. The learning factory at the IFF was founded to provide the missing knowledge about the transformability of enterprise structures to industry

This article presents an overview of a transformable Factory Cockpit that supports all aspects of decision making in factories from short term operations to long term strategies. It integrates elements of classical Business Intelligence Systems with methods of Virtual and Digital Factories. Hereby, it provides small and medium sized companies with real time transparency regarding production performance and enables rapid development and evaluation of alternative configurations of the production system. The prototype will be implemented in September 2008.

This technical contribution presents a digital planning environment for an integrated facility layout and logistics planning. The aim is a noticeable reduction of time and effort for middle- and long-term facility planning and production planning. Therefore current data from the shop floor and order management are provided in an object-oriented consistent digital structure. This data is used to forecast the need for action and to deduct alternative solutions. Planning becomes more effective, long-term planning tasks become day-to-day activities so that the flexibility of the enterprise increases.

Permanently changing environment conditions, the constant market advancement and the accelerated technological progress will force enterprises to precisely plan and optimise their production in ever shorter cycles. Planning tasks in the field of the production will therefore become increasingly complex. The tools of the digital factory and aspects of the technology management will make Advanced Industrial Engineering a powerful support for planners and designers. This enables them to plan and execute change processes faster and more precise. The article gives an overview of future solutions advanced Industrial Engineering will provide for the planning and optimisation of factories for the year 2020.

The efficiency in manufacturing can be increased by using new local control methods in combination with situational working plans. New degrees of freedom and additional reaction possibilities are generated in manufacturing, if the resource allocation and the processing order of the working steps are not predetermined anymore. The following article describes a new planning chain, consisting of production planning, closed loop production control and process planning, that is able to make use of these degrees of freedom. New material flow requirements are pointed out.

The proliferation of small mobile devices and everyday objects with integrated sensors and actuators provides the basis for a large variety of novel applications. With capabilities for wireless communication and determining the own position, these devices are ideally suited for location- and context-a-ware systems that are the focus of research in the Nexus project at the University of Stuttgart. The use of these technologies in a factory environment, e.g. a decentralized manufacturing resource management system as presented in this article, opens up a totally new application area.