Towards a Non-disruptive System for Dynamic Orchestration of the Shop Floor

Abstract

One of the main challenges of Industry 4.0 is the adaptation of existing production lines. Robots are substituting human workers in modern smart factories, as they are much more suitable for repetitive tasks. In contrast to that, Industry 4.0 predicts a high rise in product customization. The total disruption of the current factories, although the easiest solution, is not welcomed by the traditional industry stakeholders. To offer adaptation rather than disruption, and to promote man-machine collaboration rather than complete substitution of the human workforce, we present a Digital Factory solution capable of orchestrating different types of resources —humans, machines, robots— according to their capabilities. The core component of the solution is a real-time Orchestrator that orchestrates factory resources in order to produce the desired product. Orchestrator is a complex, modular, highly scalable, and pluggable software, responsible for dynamical matching, scheduling, and executing of production steps, allowing high customization and lot-size-one production.