Manufacturing Process Monitoring and Control in Industry 4.0

Abstract

The use of advanced process planning methodologies has enabled manufacturers to predict and optimize manufacturing processes in the planning stage. However, process faults and non-optimal conditions are always inherent to the manufacturing environment. The advent of Industry 4.0 has given rise to cyber-physical systems wherein online process monitoring and control can be performed autonomously. This paper discusses process monitoring and control in the context of Industry 4.0. With the focus on digital connectivity driving Industry 4.0, the advantages of cloud-based computing and knowledge inferred from a plethora of manufacturing processes can be leveraged for process monitoring and control to improve production speed, quality, and reliability. This paper presents a holistic framework for process monitoring and control in the context of Industry 4.0, where macro-level process control is conducted in the cloud and device-level process control occurs at the edge. A case study of tool life enhancement using such a framework is presented. Limitations of process monitoring and control in the context of Industry 4.0 are discussed along with proposals for new avenues of research.