626 research outputs found

    High tech automated bottling process for small to medium scale enterprises using PLC, scada and basic industry 4.0 concepts

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    The automation of industrial processes has been one of the greatest innovations in the industrial sector. It allows faster and accurate operations of production processes while producing more outputs than old manual production techniques. In the beverage industry, this innovation was also well embraced, especially to improve its bottling processes. However it has been proven that a continuous optimization of automation techniques using advanced and current trend of automation is the only way industrial companies will survive in a very competitive market. This becomes more challenging for small to medium scale enterprises (SMEs) which are not always keen in adopting new technologies by fear of overspending their little revenues. By doing so, SMEs are exposing themselves to limited growth and vulnerable lifecycle in this fast growing automation world. The main contribution of this study was to develop practical and affordable applications that will optimize the bottling process of a SME beverage plant by combining its existing production resources to basic principles of the current trend of automation, Industry 4.0 (I40). This research enabled the small beverage industry to achieve higher production rate, better delivery time and easy access of plant information through production forecast using linear regression, predictive maintenance using speed vibration sensor and decentralization of production monitoring via cloud applications. The existing plant Siemens S7-1200 programmable logic controller (PLC) and ZENON supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system were used to program the optimized process with very few additional resources. This study also opened doors for automation in SMEs, in general, to use I40 in their production processes with available means and limited cost.School of ComputingM.Tech (Engineering, Electrical

    Assessing the Industry 4.0 European divide through the country/industry dichotomy

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    Castelo-Branco, I., Henriques, M. M. D. A., Cruz-Jesus, F., & Oliveira, T. (2022). Assessing the Industry 4.0 European divide through the country/industry dichotomy. Computers and Industrial Engineering, [108925]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2022.108925Industry 4.0 refers to the application of new technologies to production and supply chain processes under the fourth industrial revolution (4th IR) paradigm and has been studied mainly in manufacturing. The present study looks to understand how the 4th IR manifests itself in the EU countries and across different industries through an Industry 4.0 perspective. Following a five-step research protocol that used a multivariate approach, Industry 4.0 Infrastructure, Big Data Maturity and Industry 4.0 Applications were identified as characterizing elements of Industry 4.0. Cluster analysis showed five homogeneous profiles of Industry 4.0 implementation across different industries and European countries. Our findings unveil a strong Industry 4.0 divide across (and within) European countries and industries. Industry 4.0 is much more determined by the industry than by the country. Knowledge of Industry 4.0 development conditions would greatly benefit from further research on the elements that drive the Industry 4.0 divide at the industry and country levels.publishersversionpublishe

    Industry 4.0: The Future of Indo-German Industrial Collaboration

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    Industry 4.0 can be described as the fourth industrial revolution, a mega- trend that affects every company around the world. It envisions interconnections and collaboration between people, products and machines within and across enterprises. Why does Industry 4.0 make for an excellent platform for industrial collaboration between India and Germany? The answers lie in economic as well as social factors. Both countries have strengths and weakness and strategic collaboration using the principles of Industry 4.0 can help both increase their industrial output, GDP and make optimal use of human resources. As a global heavy weight in manufacturing and machine export, Germany has a leading position in the development and deployment of Industry 4.0 concepts and technology. However, its IT sector, formed by a labor force of 800,000 employees, is not enough. It needs more professionals to reach its full potential. India, on the other hand, is a global leader in IT and business process outsourcing. But its manufacturing industry needs to grow significantly and compete globally. These realities clearly show the need for Industry 4.0-based collaboration between Germany and India. So how does Industry 4.0 work? In a first step, we look at the technical pers- pective – the vertical and horizontal integration of Industry 4.0 principles in enterprises. Vertical integration refers to operations within Smart Factories and horizontal integration to Smart Supply Chains across businesses. In the second step, we look at manufacturing, chemical industry and the IT sector as potential targets for collaboration between the two countries. We use case studies to illustrate the benefits of the deployment of Industry 4.0. Potential collaboration patterns are discussed along different forms of value chains and along companies’ ability to achieve Industry 4.0 status. We analyse the social impact of Industry 4.0 on India and Germany and find that it works very well in the coming years. Germany with its dwindling labor force might be compensated through the automation. This will ensure continued high productivity levels and rise in GDP. India, on the other hand has a burgeoning labor market, with 10 million workers annually entering the job market. Given that the manufacturing sector will be at par with Europe in efficiency and costs by 2023, pressure on India’s labor force will increase even more. Even its robust IT sector will suffer fewer hires because of increased automation. Rapid development of technologies – for the Internet of Things (IoT) or for connectivity like Low-Power WAN – makes skilling and reskilling of the labor force critical for augmenting smart manufacturing. India and Germany have been collaborating at three levels relevant to Industry 4.0 – industry, government and academics. How can these be taken forward? The two countries have a long history of trade. The Indo-German Chamber of Commerce (IGCC) is the largest such chamber in India and the largest German chamber worldwide. VDMA (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau, Mechanical Engineering Industry Association), the largest industry association in Europe, maintains offices in India. Indian key players in IT, in turn, have subsidia- ries in Germany and cooperate with German companies in the area of Industry 4.0. Collaboration is also supported on governmental level. As government initiatives go, India has launched the “Make in India” initiative and the “Make in India Mittelstand! (MIIM)” programme as a part of it. The Indian Government is also supporting “smart manufacturing” initiatives in a major way. Centers of Excellence driven by the industry and academic bodies are being set up. Germany and India have a long tradition of research collaboration as well. Germany is the second scientific collaborator of India and Indian students form the third largest group of foreign students in Germany. German institutions like the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) or the German House for Research and Innovation (DWIH) are working to strengthen ties between the scientific communities of the two countries, and between their academia and industry. What prevents Industry 4.0 from becoming a more widely used technology? Recent surveys in Germany and India show that awareness about Industry 4.0 is still low, especially among small and medium manufacturing enterprises. IT companies, on the other hand, are better prepared. There is a broad demand for support, regarding customtailored solutions, information on case studies and the willingness to participate in Industry 4.0 pilot projects and to engage in its platform and networking activities. We also found similar responses at workshops conducted with Industry 4.0 stakehold- ers in June 2017 in Bangalore and Pune and in an online survey. What can be done to change this? Both countries should strengthen their efforts to create awareness for Industry 4.0, especially among small and medium enterprises. Germany should also put more emphasis on making their Industry 4.0 technology known to the Indian market. India’s IT giants, on the other hand, should make their Industry 4.0 offers more visible to the German market. The governments should support the establishing of joint Industry 4.0 collaboration platforms, centers of excellence and incubators to ease the dissemination of knowledge and technology. On academic level, joint research programs and exchange programs should be set up to foster the skilling of labor force in the deployment of Industry 4.0 methods and technologies

    A Knowledge Graph Based Integration Approach for Industry 4.0

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    The fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0 (I40) aims at creating smart factories employing among others Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Realizing smart factories according to the I40 vision requires intelligent human-to-machine and machine-to-machine communication. To achieve this communication, CPS along with their data need to be described and interoperability conflicts arising from various representations need to be resolved. For establishing interoperability, industry communities have created standards and standardization frameworks. Standards describe main properties of entities, systems, and processes, as well as interactions among them. Standardization frameworks classify, align, and integrate industrial standards according to their purposes and features. Despite being published by official international organizations, different standards may contain divergent definitions for similar entities. Further, when utilizing the same standard for the design of a CPS, different views can generate interoperability conflicts. Albeit expressive, standardization frameworks may represent divergent categorizations of the same standard to some extent, interoperability conflicts need to be resolved to support effective and efficient communication in smart factories. To achieve interoperability, data need to be semantically integrated and existing conflicts conciliated. This problem has been extensively studied in the literature. Obtained results can be applied to general integration problems. However, current approaches fail to consider specific interoperability conflicts that occur between entities in I40 scenarios. In this thesis, we tackle the problem of semantic data integration in I40 scenarios. A knowledge graphbased approach allowing for the integration of entities in I40 while considering their semantics is presented. To achieve this integration, there are challenges to be addressed on different conceptual levels. Firstly, defining mappings between standards and standardization frameworks; secondly, representing knowledge of entities in I40 scenarios described by standards; thirdly, integrating perspectives of CPS design while solving semantic heterogeneity issues; and finally, determining real industry applications for the presented approach. We first devise a knowledge-driven approach allowing for the integration of standards and standardization frameworks into an Industry 4.0 knowledge graph (I40KG). The standards ontology is used for representing the main properties of standards and standardization frameworks, as well as relationships among them. The I40KG permits to integrate standards and standardization frameworks while solving specific semantic heterogeneity conflicts in the domain. Further, we semantically describe standards in knowledge graphs. To this end, standards of core importance for I40 scenarios are considered, i.e., the Reference Architectural Model for I40 (RAMI4.0), AutomationML, and the Supply Chain Operation Reference Model (SCOR). In addition, different perspectives of entities describing CPS are integrated into the knowledge graphs. To evaluate the proposed methods, we rely on empirical evaluations as well as on the development of concrete use cases. The attained results provide evidence that a knowledge graph approach enables the effective data integration of entities in I40 scenarios while solving semantic interoperability conflicts, thus empowering the communication in smart factories

    A sociotechnical perspective of the Operator 4.0 factory: A literature review and future directions

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    In this study, I illustrate the sociotechnical perspective of the Operator 4.0 factory, where advanced Industry 4.0 technologies – such as robots, the internet of things, virtual reality are deployed to collaborate with operators and help them to their activities within manufacturing organisations. There is a lack of studies exploring how Operator 4.0 factory operates through the interplay between technologies and workers. I address this gap by conducting a systematic literature review employing the sociotechnical theory. This theory sees an organisation as a work system, composed of social and technical systems and helps understand how the work system operates. Thus, I portray the novel role of Operator 4.0, the enabling technologies of the Operator 4.0 factory and the challenged to implement them, and the instrumental and workforce benefits. The results show that studies are focused on both systems meaning that operator 4.0 plays a crucial role in this factory in conjunction with Industry 4.0 technologies. Organisations adopting such production systems experience instrumental benefits related to a more efficient production process and better workforce conditions. I conclude by proposing some future research avenues

    DIN Spec 91345 RAMI 4.0 compliant data pipelining: An approach to support data understanding and data acquisition in smart manufacturing environments

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    Today, data scientists in the manufacturing domain are confronted with a set of challenges associated to data acquisition as well as data processing including the extraction of valuable in-formation to support both, the work of the manufacturing equipment as well as the manufacturing processes behind it. One essential aspect related to data acquisition is the pipelining, including various commu-nication standards, protocols and technologies to save and transfer heterogenous data. These circumstances make it hard to understand, find, access and extract data from the sources depend-ing on use cases and applications. In order to support this data pipelining process, this thesis proposes the use of the semantic model. The selected semantic model should be able to describe smart manufacturing assets them-selves as well as to access their data along their life-cycle. As a matter of fact, there are many research contributions in smart manufacturing, which already came out with reference architectures or standards for semantic-based meta data descrip-tion or asset classification. This research builds upon these outcomes and introduces a novel se-mantic model-based data pipelining approach using as a basis the Reference Architecture Model for Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0).Hoje em dia, os cientistas de dados no domínio da manufatura são confrontados com várias normas, protocolos e tecnologias de comunicação para gravar, processar e transferir vários tipos de dados. Estas circunstâncias tornam difícil compreender, encontrar, aceder e extrair dados necessários para aplicações dependentes de casos de utilização, desde os equipamentos aos respectivos processos de manufatura. Um aspecto essencial poderia ser um processo de canalisação de dados incluindo vários normas de comunicação, protocolos e tecnologias para gravar e transferir dados. Uma solução para suporte deste processo, proposto por esta tese, é a aplicação de um modelo semântico que descreva os próprios recursos de manufactura inteligente e o acesso aos seus dados ao longo do seu ciclo de vida. Muitas das contribuições de investigação em manufatura inteligente já produziram arquitecturas de referência como a RAMI 4.0 ou normas para a descrição semântica de meta dados ou classificação de recursos. Esta investigação baseia-se nestas fontes externas e introduz um novo modelo semântico baseado no Modelo de Arquitectura de Referência para Indústria 4.0 (RAMI 4.0), em conformidade com a abordagem de canalisação de dados no domínio da produção inteligente como caso exemplar de utilização para permitir uma fácil exploração, compreensão, descoberta, selecção e extracção de dados

    A Maturity Model for Assessing Industry 4.0 Readiness and Maturity of Manufacturing Enterprises

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    AbstractManufacturing enterprises are currently facing substantial challenges with regard to disruptive concepts such as the Internet of Things, Cyber Physical Systems or Cloud-based Manufacturing – also referred to as Industry 4.0. Subsequently, increasing complexity on all firm levels creates uncertainty about respective organizational and technological capabilities and adequate strategies to develop them. In this paper we propose an empirically grounded novel model and its implementation to assess the Industry 4.0 maturity of industrial enterprises in the domain of discrete manufacturing. Our main goal was to extend the dominating technology focus of recently developed models by including organizational aspects. Overall we defined 9 dimensions and assigned 62 items to them for assessing Industry 4.0 maturity. The dimensions “Products”, “Customers”, “Operations” and “Technology” have been created to assess the basic enablers. Additionally, the dimensions “Strategy”, “Leadership”, Governance, “Culture” and “People” allow for including organizational aspects into the assessment. Afterwards, the model has been transformed into a practical tool and tested in several companies whereby one case is presented in the paper. First validations of the model's structure and content show that the model is transparent and easy to use and proved its applicability in real production environments

    Asset Administration Shell in Manufacturing: Applications and Relationship with Digital Twin

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    Within Industry 4.0 the communication between the physical and the cyber part of manufacturing system faces an ever-growing rise in complexity. The Asset Administration Shell (AAS) is an information framework, within Industry 4.0, that describes the technological features of an asset. It was created to present data and information in a structured and semantically defined format, allowing for interoperability. The work addresses the industrial implementation of AAS, where a systematic literature review has been carried out to investigate the features of the implemented AAS metamodel, and the tools used for the realization of the models. A study of the convergence present in literature between the AAS and Digital Twin (DT) has also been carried out. This paper presents a reference of AAS tools and information for industry practitioners, as well as suggestions for research gaps in the standardization of AAS information modelling. Copyright (C) 2022 The Authors

    A DIN Spec 91345 RAMI 4.0 Compliant Data Pipelining Model: An Approach to Support Data Understanding and Data Acquisition in Smart Manufacturing Environments

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    Today, data scientists in the manufacturing domain are confronted with various communication standards, protocols and technologies to save and transfer various kinds of data. These circumstances makes it hard to understand, find, access and extract data needed for use case depended applications. One solution could be a data pipelining approach enforced by a semantic model which describes smart manufacturing assets itself and the access to their data along their life-cycle. Many research contributions in smart manufacturing already came out with with reference architectures like the RAMI 4.0 or standards for meta data description or asset classification. Our research builds upon these outcomes and introduces a semantic model based DIN Spec 91345 (RAMI 4.0) compliant data pipelining approach with the smart manufacturing domain as exemplary use case. This paper has a focus on the developed semantic model used to enable an easy data exploration, finding, access and extraction of data, compatible with various used communication standards, protocols and technologies used to save and transfer data.publishersversionpublishe
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