Systems Engineering as key for autonomous adaptable Industrie 4.0-Systems – How intelligent production systems can adapt to new situations
Munich, 25 July 2024
In the new Expertise of the Research Council Industrie 4.0 ‘Engineering autonomous, adaptable Industrie 4.0 systems’, the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechatronic Systems Design (IEM) provides the basis for the next evolutionary stage in production system development and identifies specific fields of action for the future: How are autonomously adaptable Industrie 4.0 systems defined in application fields such as logistics or production? Which engineering methods can be used to create them in the future?
Short-term supply bottlenecks, unplanned machine breakdowns or waves of illness in the workforce: Germany as a future-proof production location has the potential not only to network machines and systems, but also to design them to be so adaptable that they can adapt autonomously to new situations.
Digitalisation, global uncertainties and competitive pressure are key drivers for the development of networked production systems with a high degree of autonomy and adaptability. Such intelligent production systems with the ability for decentralised self-assessment and optimisation almost in real time enable new leaps in performance in the overall system of sustainable production. The Expertise describes the contribution that the systems engineering approach can make, which competences are required and where important fields of action lie.
Björn Sautter (Festo SE & Co. KG), member of the Research Council Industrie 4.0
Potentials and Challenges
Soon, autonomously adaptable production systems will be able to adjust their manufacturing processes to disruptions. By integrating information and communication technologies, data analysis and artificial intelligence, they offer increased resilience to failures. This enables companies to minimise risks, adapt to increasing individualisation and complexity and increase their efficiency. While existing production systems are primarily based on simulation, networking and specific machines, autonomous, adaptable Industrie 4.0 systems are characterised by self-reporting capabilities, flexibility and autonomy.
Analysing the engineering methods of production systems shows that there are differences: Their manufacturers rely on product development methods and their users or customers on classic factory planning methods. ‘If production systems become even more efficient and complex in the future due to autonomy and adaptability, conventional development methods will reach their limits. We therefore call on both industry and political players to invest in these three fields of action: Collaboration between engineering areas, further development of engineering methods and investment in knowledge and education,’ explains Prof. Dr Roman Dumitrescu, Director at Fraunhofer IEM and author of the Expertise.
Systems Engineering as key for adaptability and complexity management
To cope with increasing complexity, the Expertise evaluates the potential of systems engineering (SE). SE supports the holistic view of production systems with interactions between people, technology and organisation and offers methods with which users can be actively involved in development. The approach makes it possible to develop a system in an interdisciplinary manner, to think beyond the life cycle phases and to tackle potential challenges at an early stage.
In production systems, the interdependencies between product, process and production resources are much more complex. Here, however, the further development of SE methods offers opportunities to tackle autonomy and manoeuvrability. The Expertise shows the trend in today’s industry in four best-practice presentations: Smart Factory in toolmaking at KAMAX, ‘Factory of the Future’ Porsche Zuffenhausen, matrix production in flow at Siemens AG and Datenfabrik.NRW.
The gap between research and industrial development practice remains large. A competence radar summarises personnel, social, technical and methodological competences for the engineering of autonomously adaptable Industrie 4.0 systems. The Expertise makes specific recommendations to industry, science and business for the three overarching fields of action: collaboration between engineering areas, further development of engineering methods and investment in knowledge and education.
The Expertise can be downloaded (in German) for free on the acatech website.