Industrie 4.0

Volatile and globalizing markets as well as their linkage require dynamic, flexible processes and resources. Thus, many companies have implemented a Lean Production System (LPS), but the gradient for companies that have implemented LPD years ago is going to be lower. Thus, companies need to seek new ways to dynamize and enhence their production system. The fourth industrial revolution might be the answer to handle these challenges. Information and communication technologies, coming along with the fourth industrial revolution, are supporting the operational execution of LPS. This is exemplified with the principle of standardization.

Research and industry have agreed on the aims of Industry 4.0. Contrary to what this suggests, a variety of issues and related challenges, e.g. complexity, big data, security, etc., will not make a revolution at the push of a button easy. Humans in particular will also play a crucial role on the way to adaptive, networked and resource efficient factories and directly influence the factory of the future. The Fraunhofer IFF Magdeburg is therefore pursuing research on collaborative robots that will assist humans.

At present, the industry has to face various challenges due to the needs of customers for individualized products and the related increasing number of product variants. Furthermore, the increasing complexity of the value added process and the demographic change with the related increasing average age of the employees as well as the growing shortage of skilled professionals negatively influence the situation. This article deals with assistance systems as a potential tool to meet these new demands and demonstrates successful implementations of these systems that have been already realized.

In today’s production systems the functions of production planning and control (PPC) have a significant impact on an efficient performance of production processes. The decisive interface between the prognosis based planning and its operative realization can be seen in the exchange of plan data and production feedback data. It is to be expected that developments in the context of Industrie 4.0 lead to an increase in data quality and actuality. Based on these improvements improved production planning results can be achieved. In the present paper the main functions of production planning will be discussed in detail and their development potential with regard to Industrie 4.0 will be pointed out.

Maintenance is an important factor for the effectiveness of production processes. As the degree of automation and interoperation of production equipment is increasing, the significance of equipment availability and thus of maintenance is increasing. At the moment, maintenance and service engineers spend a lot of time in retrieving and preparing information. In many cases the data of business information systems is not or only partly available to maintenance engineers. In the future, resource-cockpits on mobile devices will provide maintenance and service engineers with all necessary information in situ. This will be realised interactively, with little effort and in the right context.

As a result of continuously increasing economic constraints for the producing sector in Germany due to competitors from low-wage countries, production paradigms are changing substantially. This paradigm shift is characterized by rapidly advancing automation processes. Hence, highly complex Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS) are developed and put into practice. In combination with decreasing numbers of staff and the resulting loss of knowledge, this leads to a deficit of competence required to handle the increasing complexity of CPPS. As a result, a need for innovative assistance systems arises for the support of the remaining employees. The given article describes the challenges and problems and drafts a potential technical solution as well as challenges concerning organization and staff.

Value Stream Mapping has been applied successfully in production and logistics scenarios. With the rise of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) in the context of Industry 4.0, the value-contribution of information itself is gaining importance. Therefore, the concept of Value Stream Mapping is extended to the field of information logistics. Key-processes and design variables are defined.

Experts shape theses about the trends of Industrie 4.0 in the fields of human, technology and organisation. Whereas Industrie 4.0 often focuses on the intelligent networking of technical objects, this contribution considers human and organizational aspects of mechatronic engineering of manufacturing systems. Thereto, the theses of Industrie 4.0 are compared with the Agile Manifesto and agile principles using the example of the agile framework Scrum, showing that agile engineering can provide an innovative approach to the efficient job design and organisation in the age of Industrie 4.0.

Cyber-Physical Systems and the internet of things change the way we see management, production and even logistics processes. The research project “Smart Logistic Grids” uses a decentralized cloud-based management concept to reduce the risk of disruptions in logistics networks.

Germany is Europe’s most industrialized country. The close cooperation between industry and academia ensures rapid market entry of new technologies. The production is always an integrative character of disciplines in the implementation of an idea into a product. To meet the growing challenges in the high-wage countries, any potential must be raised by new technologies continuously. Right now the information and communication technology is a particularly prominent enabler.