The Internet Connected Production Line: Realising the Ambition of Cloud Manufacturing
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The Internet Connected Production Line: Realising the Ambition of Cloud Manufacturing Chris Turner1 and Jörn Mehnen2 1Surrey Business School, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, U.K. 2Dept. of Design, Manufacture & Engineering Management, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, G1 1XJ, U.K. Keywords: Cloud Manufacturing, Industry 4.0, Industrial Internet, Cyber Physical Systems, Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Redistributed Manufacturing. Abstract: This paper outlines a vision for Internet connected production complementary to the Cloud Manufacturing paradigm, reviewing current research and putting forward a generic outline of this form of manufacture. This paper describes the conceptual positioning and practical implementation of the latest developments in manufacturing practice such as Redistributed manufacturing, Cloud Manufacturing and the technologies promoted by Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet agendas. Existing and future needs for customized production and the manufacturing flexibility required are examined. Future directions for manufacturing, enabled by web based connectivity are then proposed, concluding that the need for humans to remain ‘in the loop’ while automation develops is an essential ingredient of all future manufacturing scenarios. 1 INTRODUCTION variant. Major initiatives that promote Internet connected (or at least network connected) production The Internet and its supporting technologies have had lines, such as Industry 4.0 (Federal German a profound impact on society and business around the Government, 2016) and the Industrial Internet world over the past 20 years. The business models of (Posada et al. 2015), espouse the primacy of companies in service industries such as finance, retail interconnected machines and intelligent software and the media have seen fundamental change in forming cyber physical manufacturing entities. In response to the opportunities offered by the web and addtion manufacturing paradigms such as Cloud increasing acceptance of this communication channel Manufacturing (Zhang et al. 2014) and Redistributed by customers. The possibilities being realized in Manufacturing (Moreno and Charnley, 2016) (Ellen industries such as banking and retail are only just Macarthur Foundation, 2013) leverage digital starting to filter through to potential realization in a connectivity in realising their aims of remote and manufacturing setting. Internet connected production geographically dispersed production entities. provides an infrastructure for the opportunities The Internet of Things (IoT) forms a vital part of offered by both Cloud and redistributed forms of the infrastructure, enabling internet conncted manufacturing through the utilisation of internet production through the ubiquitous presence and protocol and web data description formats. availability of network connected sensors and the Through a combination of new technology and efficient near to real time processing the data they consumer demand for novel ‘tailored’ products there collect. It is suggested that instead of thinking of the has been a move away from classic mass production aforementioned initiatives and connectivity as manufacturing models towards mass customization separate and even competing there is a level of and mass personalization. Mass customization relates convergence that can be expressed in the delivery of to the production of products which may be the Internet connected production line as both a customized to the individual consumer needs physical and digital entity. (Mourtzis and Doukas, 2014); the automotive industry is a good example where a customer may select options to modify a mass produced vehicle 137 Turner, C. and Mehnen, J. The Internet Connected Production Line: Realising the Ambition of Cloud Manufacturing. DOI: 10.5220/0006894001370144 In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies (WEBIST 2018), pages 137-144 ISBN: 978-989-758-324-7 Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved WEBIST 2018 - 14th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies 2 VISION OF THE INTERNET notion of centralised production recedes as assembly of a product may be localised in a region of a country CONNECTED PRODUCTION or at the retail end point or perhaps even in the LINE customer’s home. It is certainly true that the amount of Big Data created has increased at an exponential A common theme to all of the aforementioned rate (Kambatla et al., 2014) and this is providing new subjects outlined in the preceding section of this opportunities for the development and production of paper is the ubiquity of Internet technologies and their new products. Among the points made by Li et al. use in connecting once disparate entities to form a (2015) regarding Big Data and Product Lifecycle digital “nervous” system for manufacturing. An Management (PLM) the following are particularly important facilitator of the required interconnectivity relevant to the operation and use of Internet is provided through the concept of Servitization in connected production lines Li et al. (2015): combination with Webservices technology expressed • Lifetime prediction for parts through a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) • Access to product design data inside and (Tzima and Mitkas, 2008). When products and outside a company – improving design services are sold as bundled offerings (Servitization) • the digital interactions between different company Access to production line data • entities and even the customer may be conveyed Monitored products and product service through web based applications on a request and systems • provision based protocol (Baines et al., 2009; Wu et al., IT integration and connection with 2015). Much of the richness in the digital production line sensors and CPS communication now possible is provided by semantics, • Prediction of customers’ needs and demand whereby meta-data to describe manufacturing level for products parameters and other data points promote a meaningful • Supplier performance measurement and exchange between engaged parties. prediction • Smart maintenance of production lines 2.1 Internet Connected Production • Controlling energy consumption and Line Goal enabling emission reduction in manufacturing While the question must be asked ‘what is the goal Cloud Manufacturing is a term that has been gaining for Internet Connected Manufacturing?’ Building on in popularity in recent years. As described by Xu Wu et al. (2015) vision for Cloud Manufacturing, the (2014), Cloud Manufacturing is a concept that aims following aim can be formed for an Internet to describe how Cloud technologies could be used to connected production line: link distributed production facilities with both ‘To provide an outline template for distributed customers and suppliers. Dynamic scalability of production benefiting from autonomous decision production is possible with Cloud manufacturing making based on a real time view of the organisation where products can be produced using generic non- and its environment’. An additional question that specialised tooling (Wu et al., 2013). may also be asked regarding the location of the production facilities if all parts of the manufacturing 2.2 Security process are digitally linked. Along with trends in economics and geopolitics, re-distributed Research is underway on ways to establish trust, manufacturing can provide part of the answer to the transparency and legal liability when it comes to question of production line location. Along with distributed and global Internet business connections. trends in economics and geopolitics, re-distributed The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) highlight manufacturing can provide part of the answer to the that further research into IoT security highlighting the question of production line location. In a monolithic need for methods to ensure end to end trust and factory producing products such as automobiles, the techniques to verify related metadata (describing data main production assembly resides in one factory with provenance) and its context (W3C, 2017). Recent subsidiary factories producing substantial research includes the use of Blockchain technology to components such as engines and gearboxes (the provide a means for secure transactions in subsidiary factories are normally wholly owned manufacturing supply chains. Abeyratne and facilities of the parent company or first tier suppliers). Monfared (2016) outline Blockchain use in In geographically distributed factory facilities, the manufacturing highlighting its ability to allow two 138 The Internet Connected Production Line: Realising the Ambition of Cloud Manufacturing parties to trust and securely transact with each other possible reconstruction of an audit trail for automated without the need for a 3rd party facilitator. decision making). The OPC UA (OPC Unified Blockchains use in IoT interconnectivity has been Architecture) is a standard for industrial system outlined by Bahga and Madisetti (2016) who propose intercommunication that is platform neutral (OPC a secure platform for IoT based on Blockchain, Foundation, 2017). This standard while comprehensive allowing for connectivity between peers in a formally in its specification can be complex and expensive for trust-less network environment. an organisation to implement. The work of Henßen and Schleipen (2014) examines the role that the 2.3 Metadata AutomationML mark-up language can play in simplifying the use