Process Planning in Era 4.0

Abstract

The world is experiencing the Fourth Industrial Revolution over the years. With the continual progress, the working environment is also changing rapidly in a direction to achieve substantial benefits. Various manufacturing-related activities are now being automated and are linked with another within a company. However, with the network of machines, one of the major challenges is that of data management. Management of humongous data is done using cloud computing, Internet of things or cyber-physical systems. With the constantly changing manufacturing environment, the personnel involved will have to learn the new skills and adapt to these changes that will ultimately aid in the enhancement of their performances. Manufacturing environment with both the technological as well as the human improvements will result in enhanced productivity, quality of product, reduced manufacturing time and hence the product prices. With the advancements in the manufacturing environment, the concept of mass customization will be easy to realize. The present chapter deals to reflect the changing role of process planner to product planner. Product planner in the realm of Industry 4.0 is a software that is connected to other parts in a supply chain. This software generates the order of scheduling, order of operations and process plan using advanced optimization algorithms. This chapter aims to provide an overview of the product planner that aids in automatically planning, scheduling and operation sequencing.