digital factory

The article highlights the current challenges factory planning is facing in the realm of changeability and the creation of flexible structures, which adapt to changing market environments. IM has conducted a survey among factory planning companies and provides the results as well as annotating remarks in this report.

Currently the realisation of the Digital Factory as the strategic goal for the next five years has been identified by many manufacturing enterprises. To achieve an integrated system planning and operation, the work is aimed at a comprehensive computer-based modelling of all design characteristics, structures and processes of a factory. This article scrutinises the technique-centred process for the realisation of the Digital Factory, which is currently favoured due to pragmatic reasons, and presents - based on the models in the Digital Factory - a comprehensive integration concept. To ensure the users’ acceptance, a user-oriented process considering enterprise-organisational requirements is preferred.

An intensive co-operation and data exchange between members of different disciplines are necessary in planning, conception and development of production plants and processes. Planning failures that are identified too late or different understanding of contents can lead to significant effects, e.g. during starting or ramp-up. In the context of the Digital Factory the Fraunhofer IPA develops organizational and technological solutions for co-operative planning on the base of workflow and knowledge management as well as solutions for interaction, data and tool integration. The aim is the optimisation of planning quality and planning costs.

With emphasis simulation experts in research, consultancy and industry work on the vision of the Digital Factory. This catch phrase, which is especially promoted in the automotive sector, stands for a comprehensive, simulation model of real production systems and their logis-tics. One of the challenges faced by the developers in the realisation of this vision is the integration of big models. The article describes a concept, which supports the horizontal and vertical integration of simulation models.

The “Digital Factory” uses the most modern information technology in all phases of the plant life-cycle. The high target is to increase the productivity by reducing the planning and the changeover time, by increasing the flexibility and the capacity, etc. Thereby important tools are MES solutions.

In a highly competitive environment characterized by decreasing life cycles, lower profit margins and a stronger individualization of products enterprises are forced to adopt new strategies to stand the challenges of the market. The article describes the framework of an integrated complexity management including methods, models and information technology for the identification, the control, the reduction and the prevention of activities without any productivity in direct and indirect sectors of the supply chain.