Supporting adaptiveness of cyber-physical processes through action-based formalisms

Cyber Physical Processes (CPPs) refer to a new generation of business processes enacted in many application environments (e.g., emergency management, smart manufacturing, etc.), in which the presence of Internet-of-Things devices and embedded ICT systems (e.g., smartphones, sensors, actuators) strongly influences the coordination of the real-world entities (e.g., humans, robots, etc.) inhabitating such environments. A Process Management System (PMS) employed for executing CPPs is required to automatically adapt its running processes to anomalous situations and exogenous events by minimising any human intervention. In this paper, we tackle this issue by introducing an approach and an adaptive Cognitive PMS, called SmartPM, which combines process execution monitoring, unanticipated exception detection and automated resolution strategies leveraging on three well-established action-based formalisms developed for reasoning about actions in Artificial Intelligence (AI), including the situation calculus, IndiGolog and automated planning. Interestingly, the use of SmartPM does not require any expertise of the internal working of the AI tools involved in the system

A Roadmap towards an Automated Warehouse Digital Twin: current implementations and future developments

Automation and digitization increase the effectiveness and efficiency of logistics processes. In warehousing, Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS) are largely adopted due to their considerable advantages over traditional warehousing, namely high space utilization, shorter cycle times and improved inventory control. To further enhance such advantages, warehouse operations can be digitized via a Digital Twin (DT) which retrieves data from the real-world industrial process, mimics its behaviour and feeds specific inputs back to the real-world process, after elaboration from a simulation-based digital model. This work presents a DT proposal for a real-world AS/RS system, highlighting its current implementations together with its future developments

Automated data-driven creation of the Digital Twin of a brownfield plant

The success of the reconfiguration of existing manufacturing systems, so called brownfield systems, heavily relies on the knowledge about the system. Reconfiguration can be planned, supported and simplified with the Digital Twin of the system providing this knowledge. However, digital models as the basis of a Digital Twin are usually missing for these plants. This article presents a data-driven approach to gain knowledge about a brownfield system to create the digital models of a Digital Twin and their relations. Finally, a proof of concept shows that process data and position data as data sources deliver the relations between the models of the Digital Twin.Comment: 7 Pages, 5 figures. Accepted at IEEE ETFA 202

Class-based storage location assignment : an overview of the literature

Storage, per se, is not only an important process in a warehouse, also it has the greatest influence on the most expensive one, i.e., order picking. This study aims to give a literature overview on class-based storage location assignment (CBSLAP). In this paper, we discuss storage policies and present a classification of storage location assignment problem. Next, different configuration of classes are presented. We identify the research gaps in the literature and conclude with promising future research directions

PhyNetLab: An IoT-Based Warehouse Testbed

Future warehouses will be made of modular embedded entities with communication ability and energy aware operation attached to the traditional materials handling and warehousing objects. This advancement is mainly to fulfill the flexibility and scalability needs of the emerging warehouses. However, it leads to a new layer of complexity during development and evaluation of such systems due to the multidisciplinarity in logistics, embedded systems, and wireless communications. Although each discipline provides theoretical approaches and simulations for these tasks, many issues are often discovered in a real deployment of the full system. In this paper we introduce PhyNetLab as a real scale warehouse testbed made of cyber physical objects (PhyNodes) developed for this type of application. The presented platform provides a possibility to check the industrial requirement of an IoT-based warehouse in addition to the typical wireless sensor networks tests. We describe the hardware and software components of the nodes in addition to the overall structure of the testbed. Finally, we will demonstrate the advantages of the testbed by evaluating the performance of the ETSI compliant radio channel access procedure for an IoT warehouse

Through Engineering 4.0 the Safe Operating Block for Patients and Medical Staff

The Paper deals with the management of the operating block in its many activities. By a new approach and with innovative machinery specific several problems were thus studied and overcome, such as the control of hospital infections, the operations of washing and sterilization of surgical instruments, the planning of interventions, the tracking of drugs and medical devices entering the operating block, the management of stocks, the bed management, the monitoring of environmental parameters for patient comfort and safety, the monitoring of machines and the interlocking of doors, etc. Furthermore, it is proposed a wide use of the analytical tools to support decision making, extended to the most modern Cyber-Physical Systems and Digital Twin, alongside Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence algorithms. Concluding with the new services that can be offered following the digital transformation 4.0 process of the operating block. Using the tools made available by the most advanced Engineering, an operating block was redesigned, safer for patients and medical staff and more efficient from a conduction point of view. This is done using an administration model that was first conceptualized, designed and then implemented adopting what is made available by Industry 4.0, as well as a series of Management Engineering methodologies aimed at an optimized government of complex systems. Through the data collected by appropriate sensors and translated by the software into usable information, there is an optimal use of the available resources, furthermore, the activities for which improvements can be made with the benefit of patients and structures are identified

Supply Chain Digitalization – Optimizing The Factory Material Flow

Nykypäivän kiristynyt kilpailu ja edistyneet toimitusketjut edellyttävät entistä parempaa tomistusketjun digitalisointia parantamaan tehokkuutta, toimistusvarmuutta ja yrityksen kannattavuutta. Toimitusketjun digitalisoinnin avulla voidaan tukea reaaliaikaisesti muuttuvaa kysyntää valmistusyksikössä, luomalla älykäs toimitusketju joka tukee kysyntälähtöistä arvoketjua. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on selvittää ja esittää kohdeyritykselle mahdolliset toiminallisuudet ja tuotteet SAP S/4HANA:sta jotka tukevat kohdeyrityksen nykyisiä ja suunniteltuja toimitusketjun prosesseja. Työssä tutkitaan hankinnasta, varastonhallintaan ja valmistukseen liittyviä toiminallisuuksia. Toiminnallisuudet analysoidaan kohdeyrityksen näkökulmasta ja verrataan vaatimuksiin, joita kohdeyrityksessa nostetaan esille. Tutkielman teoreettinen osuus pohjautuu toimitusketjun ja ERP SAP uuteen tuotteeseen SAP S/4HANA. Toimitusketjun osuudessa tuodaan esille, kuinka vaatimukset Toimitusketju 4.0 ja Teollisuus 4.0 voidaan nähdä suuntaviivoina SAP S/4HANA:n kehitykselle. Empiirinen osuus jakautuu kahteen tutkimuskysymykseen: Mitkä ovat tulevaisuuden mahdollisuudet visualisoida, arvioida ja optimoida toimitusketjua SAP S/4HANA ydintoiminnoilla? Mitä hyötyä kohde-yritys voi saavuttaa ottamalla käyttöön SAP S/4HANA laajennetut toiminallisuudet? Työn tuloksena saatiin ymmärrys SAP S/4HANA tuotteesta ja sen mahdollisuuksista toimitusketjun osalta. SAP S/4HANA tuotteena tukee monia kohdeyrityksen vaatimuksia ylätasolla, mutta vaatii konkreettisempia tutkimuksia ja testausta kohdeyrityksen työskentely ympäristössä sekä pitäisi hyödyntää kohdeyrityksen dataa.Today’s increasing competition and advanced supply chain needs better digitized supply chain to improve efficiency, on time delivery and business profitability. Supply chain digitalization enable to have real- time optimized supply chain. Supply chain management supporting the variable manufacturing unit demand by creating smart supply chain that supports the demand-driven value chain. The purpose of the study is to investigate and present how the SAP S/4HANA functionalities and products could support the case company and defined supply chain processes. The study explores supply chain from purchasing, inventory management to manufacturing. Functionalities are analysed from case company perspective and are compared to requirements what case company has raised up. Theoretical chapters focus on the supply chain and ERP SAP new product SAP S/4HANA. Supply chain chapter is divided to Supply 4.0 and Industry 4.0 to bring up the view how the SAP S/4HANA is aligned with these topics. Empirical part is divided into two research questions: What are the future capabilities to visualize, evaluate and optimize the supply chain including the core functionalities of the SAP S/4HANA? What benefits the case company can achieve by implementing the extended functionalities of the SAP S/4HANA? As a result of the study a good understanding of the SAP S/4HANA product and the possibility related to supply chain was reached. SAP S/4HANA as a product supports most of the requirements from case company in high level but requires more specific research and testing in company environment with real company data

Smart supply chain management in Industry 4.0

The emerging information and communication technologies (ICT) related to Industry 4.0 play a critical role to enhance supply chain performance. Employing the smart technologies has led to so-called smart supply chains. Understanding how Industry 4.0 and related ICT affect smart supply chains and how smart supply chains evolve with the support of the advanced technologies are vital to practical and academic communities. Existing review works on smart supply chains with ICT mainly rely on the academic literature alone. This paper presents an integrated approach to explore the effects of Industry 4.0 and related ICT on smart supply chains, by combining introduction of the current national strategies in North America, the research status analysis on ICT assisted supply chains from the major North American national research councils, and a systematic literature review of the subject. Besides, we introduce a smart supply chain hierarchical framework with multi-level intelligence. Furthermore, the challenges faced by supply chains under Industry 4.0 and future research directions are discussed as well

On the role of Prognostics and Health Management in advanced maintenance systems

The advanced use of the Information and Communication Technologies is evolving the way that systems are managed and maintained. A great number of techniques and methods have emerged in the light of these advances allowing to have an accurate and knowledge about the systems’ condition evolution and remaining useful life. The advances are recognized as outcomes of an innovative discipline, nowadays discussed under the term of Prognostics and Health Management (PHM). In order to analyze how maintenance will change by using PHM, a conceptual model is proposed built upon three views. The model highlights: (i) how PHM may impact the definition of maintenance policies; (ii) how PHM fits within the Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) and (iii) how PHM can be integrated into Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) programs. The conceptual model is the research finding of this review note and helps to discuss the role of PHM in advanced maintenance systems.EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020, 645733 - Sustain-Owner - H2020-MSCA-RISE-201