Abstract
The optimization of production processes has always been one of the cornerstones for manufacturing companies, aimed to increase their productivity, minimizing the related costs. In the Industry 4.0 era, some innovative technologies, perceived as far away until a few years ago, have become reachable by everyone. The massive introduction of these technologies directly in the factories allows interconnecting the resources (machines and humans) and the entire production chain to be kept under control, thanks to the collection and the analyses of real production data, supporting the decision making process. This article aims to propose a methodological framework that, thanks to the use of Industrial Internet of Things—IoT devices, in particular the wearable sensors, and simulation tools, supports the analyses of production line performance parameters, by considering both experimental and numerical data, allowing a continuous monitoring of the line balancing and performance at varying of the production demand. A case study, regarding a manual task of a real manufacturing production line, is presented to demonstrate the applicability and the effectiveness of the proposed procedure.
Highlights
As introduced by the authors in [1], in recent years, industries are going through a period of massive changes, named Industry 4.0—I4.0, aimed to achieve a higher level of operational efficiency and productivity [2] and to provide resources able to enhance the products and production lines quality with a focus on costs reduction too
This paper is focused on the use of IoT and simulation tools that, by integrating sensors and simulators for investigating human working performance [4], allow in-line adjustments and process control, enhancing a near-real time management of the production lines based on different kinds of production technologies [5]
This paper is aimed to propose a novel methodological framework, partially presented in [1], based on the implementation of human motion data collected by a wearable motion tracking system in a numerical simulation, tending to a Digital Twin
Summary
As introduced by the authors in [1], in recent years, industries are going through a period of massive changes, named Industry 4.0—I4.0, aimed to achieve a higher level of operational efficiency and productivity [2] and to provide resources able to enhance the products and production lines quality with a focus on costs reduction too Within this context, factories are becoming smart, more flexible and collaborative, in order to satisfy the current demands of an increasingly competitive market. IoT, despite the different visions of the scientific communities [6], is considered as a pervasive presence around us of a variety of things or objects (sensors, actuators, mobile phones, etc.), which, through unique addressing schemes, are able to interact with each other and cooperate with their neighbors to reach common goals Thanks to these technologies, it is possible to connect different devices and get them to communicate. Wearable devices are very important since they are provided with sensors capable to measure movements, lights, sounds, temperatures, etc. and to communicate these data in real, or near-real, time to other devices or users
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