Design of an ecosystem platform for manufacturing operations using loosely defined standards

Abstract

Abstract Connected factories will take a key role in future manufacturing environments in which, on the one hand, manufacturers focus on and invest in their core competitive production processes, while, on the other hand, they connect dynamically with other enterprises in a supply chain both in cyber and physical worlds. These connected factories also participate in engineering chains as their production lines are operated together with their engineering partners through the whole lifecycle, supported by shared data in a connected platform environment. While we think this view is shared globally among enterprise leaders, the path to realize these complex environments is not straightforward. The Japanese Industrial Value Chain Initiative (IVI) has created an own, pragmatic approach focusing on the transformation of existing advanced systems in feasible steps, rather than elaborating a complex target model first. The motivation is as follows: To collaborate with other connected enterprises, a communication platform and knowledge sharing about some pre-defined standardized activities and data models is required. However, there is a risk of losing competitiveness for an advanced player who would need to adjust his advantageous properties to the common technology. Therefore, the IVI proposes a so-called loosely defined standard that provides a collection of reference models for manufacturing activities, information, things and data entities. The platform allows each manufacturing site to define its own operational models to connect within the local environments. Such an own operational model could be, for example, the model currently in use at this site. Complementary, the platform monitors the differences of each local definition to the reference models.