Model based, modular configuration of cyber physical systems for the information management on shop-floor

Abstract

Many of the current manufacturing systems are still implemented as sequential inflexible production lines. This creates difficulties to fulfil the customer request for customized products. The production of customized products is accompanied by major changes in the production infrastructure. To support more flexible production, the sequential production lines nowadays start to change to workshop production. In that case all production systems will be grouped by their tasks, e.g. all drilling machines are located in the same place. A manufacturing system stands for the different involved hardware and software components at the manufacturing process. Each manufacturing system is connected with the help of the shop-floor IT. The term shop-floor indicates the productive area of a factory and includes the operative work. Shop-floor IT includes the information processes and IT solutions that control, secure and record product activities. Therefore the shop-floor IT supports directly the execution on field level. The model based view of a production process simplifies the understanding of the product lifecycle and planning. To optimize and speed up building and changing of product processes, the modular shop-floor IT has been developed by technologies derived from cyber physical systems and internet of things. However, interoperability issues such as different implementation of controls and process variations are a major challenge.