Cyber-Physical Systems as Enablers in Manufacturing Communication and Worker Support

The increasing potential of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) drives higher degrees of digitisation in the manufacturing industry. Such catchphrases as “Industry 4.0” and “smart manufacturing” reflect this tendency. The implementation of these paradigms is not merely an end to itself, but a new way of collaboration across existing department and process boundaries. Converting the process input, internal and output data into digital twins offers the possibility to test and validate the parameter changes via simulations, whose results can be used to update guidelines for shop-floor workers. The result is a Cyber-Physical System (CPS) that brings together the physical shop-floor, the digital data created in the manufacturing process, the simulations, and the human workers. The CPS offers new ways of collaboration on a shared data basis: the workers can annotate manufacturing problems directly in the data, obtain updated process guidelines, and use knowledge from other experts to address issues. Although the CPS cannot replace manufacturing management since it is formalised through various approaches, e. g., Six-Sigma or Advanced Process Control (APC), it is a new tool for validating decisions in simulation before they are implemented, allowing to continuously improve the guidelines.