Smart Factory and the Unique Digital Order Twin

Abstract

Smart Factories are designed by Universities [e.g. , ] and Research Institutes (e.g. IPA, IFF, IOSB, IFF, DFKI). Also, automotive companies are developing their ‘own’ Smart Factories [e.g. 3, 6]. The focus is on manufacturing processes, technical equipment, and control of technical processes but not on business and order processes [4, 5]. To run a Smart Factory also a concept for a “Digital Order Twin” (DOT) is needed to ensure that for each final product the right components are available in the right quantity at the right time and at the right place, especially if the product is configurated by a customer or dealer. But existing IT-Systems for Enterprise-Resource-Planning (ERPS), Material-Requirement-Planning (MRP) and Manufacturing Execution (MES) are not able to exploit the huge amount of acquired data ‘in-time’, because they are separated IT-Modules which are connected by batch-oriented interfaces only, the concept and algorithm base on the “Water-Fall-Model” without recursion to a preceding IT-System or IT-Module. In an autonomously controlled Smart Factory the right components must be referenced to each single final product instantly and in a more flexible way than the concept of pearl chain can do, instead of a unique DOT uses instantly data of RFID, QR-Code, Smart Devices and Cyber-Physical Objects and can interact in time with Systems and Modules.