An Application of Horizontal and Vertical Integration in Cyber-Physical Production Systems

Abstract

It has a need to meet the demands of individual customers and solve the problems in current production caused by changing of the markets and the global influence and general competition situation. Utilization of the progress achieved in the information and communication technologies are expected in the future for many manufacturing companies. This leads to the increasing and consistent integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into the production systems in smaller and smaller subsystems and components. Cyber-Physical System will be more and more involved in production systems. Mechatronic systems become cyber-physical systems through additional communication skills and autonomy in behavior on external influences and internally stored settings. In the Cyber-Physical Production System, the horizontal integration through value networks and the vertical integration through networked manufacturing systems can be built to realize smart factory and smart production. In a laboratory environment at the Experimental and Digital Factory at the Chemnitz University of Technology, an innovative logistical system is built up to apply the horizontal and vertical integration into practice for research investigations. A research question to be answered is how the communication between components in this system related to the horizontal and vertical integration can be implemented. The other issue is how to test the integration and the functionalities.