Petri Net Model of a Smart Factory in the Frame of Industry 4.0

Abstract

Industry 4.0 advocates an intensive use of information and communication technologies in manufacturing facilities for achieving sustainability and success in a market with exigent and informed consumers willing personalized products and services. Three main concepts of the Industry 4.0 paradigm are addressed: cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, and virtualization. A Petri net model of a smart factory regarding the Industry 4.0 paradigm is proposed as virtualization for decision making support. Enhanced computing and communication capabilities of machines and products allow implementing the approach of mass customization. Any product is associated to a sequence of services, being able to request them to the appropriate machines. The formalism of the object Petri nets has been chosen, where a token net is associated to the product and a system net to the facility. The resulting model can be considered for analysis, performance evaluation, and decision making support.