Expectations are high for tomorrow’s manufacturing: factories must be smart, changeable, efficient and sustainable. Industry 4.0 stands for an intelligent networking of product development, production, logistics and customers. The fourth industrial revolution will alter Germany as a top industrial location.
According to the German Industrie 4.0 Working Group, it revolves around “networks of manufacturing resources (manufacturing machinery, robots, conveyor and warehousing systems and production facilities) that are autonomous, capable of controlling themselves in response to different situations, self-configuring, knowledge-based, sensor-equipped and spatially dispersed and that also incorporate the relevant planning and management systems” (Recommendations for implementing the strategic initiative INDUSTRIE 4.0).
Flexibilization of the production processes and economically feasible manufacturing down to lot size 1 – these are the central challenges of Industrie 4.0. But how can companies, including SMEs, accomplish the transition to Industrie 4.0? This requires software that supports the changeable workflows in a manufacturing process. In addition, it must be capable of integrating heterogeneous machines by different manufacturers into one overall system. Under the motto “Making networked production easy with digital twins!”, the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE and NetApp will present their joint model factory at Hannover Messe 2019 to show how the open-source middleware BaSys 4.0 can fulfill these requirements through the use of digital twins.
Fraunhofer employees have established an international network with experts from Sweden. Together, they are researching Industrie 4.0 solutions for connected, adaptive production based on the example of gear manufacturing.
Industrial enterprises increasingly operate across multiple locations. Fraunhofer researchers will be collaborating with Swedish experts to show how Industrie 4.0-style networked manufacturing can even extend across borders.
Taking a holistic view, the aim of the Fraunhofer Lighthouse Project »E3 Production« is to research how to better plan, implement and monitor the flow of materials, energy and information in emissions-neutral E³ factories carrying out ergonomic, energy- and resource-efficient production.
E³ production means examining synergies and putting into motion a holistic solution for the process, process chain, factory and factory environment levels. Together with industrial partners, the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU will develop and put to the test innovative technologies and pilot applications with a practical orientation in the E³-Forschungsfabrik Resource-efficient Production.
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
