Autor: Michael Lütjen

The comprehensive digitalization of work environment constitutes major challenges in connection with new media and an extended human-computer interaction. In this context, service and maintenance proved to be an important field of application for this form of Industry 4.0. An adequate process execution and documentation has to be secured, even under challenging conditions, e.g. malfunctions on short notice, harsh working conditions or tight timeframes. These requirements as well as the increasing digitalization promote the application of Augmented Reality solutions in this area. With a focus on maintenance of wind energy turbines, this article describes the state of the art in relation to current solution approaches and development needs in connection with a process-oriented application of Augmented Reality. Therefore, current solutions that are already on the market are considered as well as results of the joint research project “AR Maintenance System”.

The online grocery is facing big challenges. In addition to products of daily use, it is necessary to deliver fresh, chilled and frozen foods quickly and reliably to the customer. Frozen products are delivered for decades to the customers by using small cooling vans. Since some years also normal parcel delivery services in combination with insulated shipping containers are used. This article examines in a comparative analysis the environmental impact of alternative shipping modes in comparison to normal supermarket shopping by use of a life cycle assessment according to DIN EN ISO 14040.

Exact planning and configuration of process chains contributes significantly to manufacturing excellence in micro manufacturing. In this type of manufacturing, production must adhere to very low tolerances. Furthermore, a multitude of manufacturing processes is available in micro manufacturing whereas some processes are better suited than others for given tasks. The methodology “Micro Process Planning and Analysis” (µ-ProPlAn), which is described in this article, provides suitable means for planning and configuration of such process chains with the necessary level of detail. To reduce the manual workload in comparing alternative process chains, this article proposes an extension, which enables an automatic selection of alternative processes based on a geometry oriented annotation of the µ-ProPlAn process models.

The global community is currently experiencing many disasters requiring humanitarian aid not only for ethical reasons. This concerns natural disasters, but also man-made disasters such as war, terrorist attacks and nuclear disasters. Humanitarian aid is generally understood as a response to humanitarian emergencies, which goes beyond an initial support. Key elements of humanitarian aid are disaster management and humanitarian logistics, which operate as organizational principles in order to coordinate the supply of food, goods and emergency rescue workers. Due to the high dynamics and limited information transparency it is very difficult for the responsible persons to mitigate the plight as effectively as possible. A good method to develop effective disaster risk management strategies and decision-making mechanisms is the use of model-based planning and control approaches. This article discusses the current modeling challenges of humanitarian aid scenarios as well as the potential of ...

The importance of data science for production and logistics continues to grow because more data are available due to Industry 4.0-Applications used for process and system optimization. In addition, the improved methods and tools for data analysis enable an easier processing of application-specific issues. This article is the second part relating to data science in production and logistics. While the first article dealt with the definition of terms and the potential of data analysis, the article at hand is dedicated to the application of data science in production and logistics by means of various application examples.

As manufacturing technologies are scaled down from macro to micro level, unexpec-ted process behavior emerges, so called size effects. This also regards reliable optical quality inspection, as tolerances in micrometer range require microscopic solutions. Optical magnification comes with a strong reduction in field of depth as well as a decrease in the measured area, which makes exact positioning and possibly measurements at different depth levels necessary. Here we present and evaluate a demonstrator platform for the automatic measurement of micro parts using a light field camera.

The implementation of industry 4.0 concepts requires a new understanding of data processing and analysis. Data Science integrates approaches of mathematical modelling and performant implementation to analyse data of specific application areas. Within this first article, the basics of Data Science are presented and perspectives for a data-driven production and logistics are discussed. Within a second article in a following edition, the process steps for structured data analysis will be explained and illustrated by means of application examples.

Due to a variety of technological developments within the past decade, today’s industrial working environment is changing dramatically. Information and communication technologies as well as automation and robotics are penetrating the working environment. In the context of industrial 4.0, the interaction of systems increases. Sensor data, status information and control commands are exchanged, which creates the conditions for new types of production concepts such as Remote Manufacturing. Remote Manufacturing describes a delocalized production, which removes the spatial unity of production factors. It will be no longer necessary for the elementary production factors (labor, materials, equipment) and the dispositional production factors (planning, management, control, organization) to be located at one place. In the future, it will be possible to operate production facilities abroad and to monitor the process control level from Germany. In this paper, the economic environment and the ...

This paper deals with forecasting of single period products taking the apparel industry as an example. Due to the resulting shortcomings of conventional forecasting methods, i.e. the statistical methods, and subjective estimates, the improvement of sales forecasting using a community-based approach is proposed. A platform for a professional community can be created by cloud computing tools.

Automation is an interdisciplinary technology which has a significant impact on the industry in Germany. Especially in micro-production as a niche market, there are numerous applications that require highly automated production technologies. The biggest challenge is the control of size effects. Size effects occur in the production of micro components because the ratio of volume to surface forces shifts and adhesion appears. Furthermore, micro forming has batches with high volume, which require high flexible and ideally universal automated handling systems for efficient multi-stage manufacturing processes. This paper deals with the adhesion forces and their reduction by minimizing the contact surface. In addition, requirements and approaches to automated allocation of micro-components are discussed.