Industry 4.0

The implementation of Industry 4.0 solutions offers great potential for meeting growing challenges in the context of digitization. Nevertheless, particularly small and medium-sized companies are hesitant to implement Industry 4.0 solutions. Within the framework of the ERDF research project »Synus«, methods and tools were developed to support small and medium-sized companies in the evaluation and selection of Industry 4.0 solutions. This contribution presents the potential model, which enables small and medium-sized enterprises to select suitable Industry 4.0 solutions.

The paradigm shift towards a customer focused mass customization in Industry 4.0 and corresponding Logistics 4.0 requires technical solutions to make these approaches economically viable. When human workers on the shopfloor are faced with these technologies, however, they can be the source of fear and resistance. Applications for mobile devices are a user-friendly component of a digitization strategy in this light. A real life example from the printing industry is highlighting how apps can be used to save money, improve process reliability and increase worker satisfaction at the same time.

The age of globalisation is characterised by increased competition. An opportunity to succeed in the face of increasing competition lies in the digitisation of production companies. This article is dedicated to the design of a three-stage model platform of Industry 4.0, which focuses on the consistency of processes from the customer to the supplier at all company levels. The model platform is followed by an overview of the transformation steps for evaluating and shaping progress on the way to become a digitised production company.

The paper describes the conception and implementation as well as offers an insight into the first results of a study with experimental design in a simulated process environment at the Research and Application Center Industry 4.0 in Potsdam. The focus is on learning processes in the field of simple work and their organization through the use of digital assistance systems. In labour research, there are indications that process knowledge is lost with the use of these systems, in the sense of a good knowledge of the entire work process in which the individual activities are embedded. To investigate the role of process knowledge in the use of digital assistance systems, a real factory situation is simulated in the experiment.

In process engineering, one thinks of production operations that are controlled or regulated by sensors and actuators. And any realization of matter transformation is based on a physical substratum, which holds equally for living systems and their behaviour. The article distinguishes between three system levels: the functional level, the interface to the environment and the cognitive level of. Using these three levels, the learning cycle or the previous Cognitive Loop can be very well illustrated. If one compares with this way of distinction the Bio-Informatization of human intelligence with the technical development stages of mechanization, automation, regulation and deep learning, then the cybernetic-sociological term “operational closure” becomes understandable. It becomes obvious that in the context of a digitized culture of production and organization, we should be prepared for a new kind of cognitive loop based on silicon (SI), an intelligent system behavior via ...

The paper presents a method for the systematic selection of “Digital Twin” applications of products. Based on a product-independent search of implementations, potential use cases for the product’s ”Digital Twin” are specified and selected. This selection of applications forms the basis of the method, which allows a detailed modeling in two phases. The result of this modeling is an in-depth understanding of the use cases themselves and their requirements, especially information requirements, on the “Digital Twin” of the product. Furthermore, these findings enable an efficient conception and implementation of the virtual image of the product and can be the basis for optimizing the existing value chain.