Today, “Industry 4.0” is the topic to be talked of when it comes to the future of manufacturing. It stands for the “forth industrial revolution” and is a holistic vision of the impact of social 
networks, cloud computing, and in-memory computing on production and logistics (others call it “advanced manufacturing”, see Industry 4.0 Leads into the Innovation Economy). But where does this vision come from? SAP has been engaged in several research projects that prepared the technologies for Industry 4.0, such as the Internet of Things and M2M communications.
Within these projects SAP has investigated Industry 4.0 along the following dimensions:
- End-to-End Digital Engineering (digitalization of the whole product lifecycle)
- Top-Floor – Shop-Floor Integration (vertical integration)
- Real-Time Value-Add Networks (horizontal integration)
- New Business Models (business dimension)
- Future of Work (human dimension)
Most of the projects were conducted by consortia of research institutes, universities, and businesses and received public funding by the German Federal Government or the European Commission.
Here are five highlights from current and recent research projects:
End-to-end Digital Engineering: Creating and using digital product memories
All physical objects and processes will have a digital image in the future which will enable digital chains and new, innovative business processes. Pre-planning will give way to a more active, autonomous, and self-organizing production. The German research project SemProm (Semantic Product Memory), funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research, explored how smart items can communicate over the “Internet of Things” and how important product data can be stored and used along the product lifecycle. Semantic product memories provide a detailed product and production history, for example about the condition of base material or the individual steps of the manufacturing process. With this data, possible faults can be detected faster and recalls can be reduced to only one product (when the product had been processed by a specific machine). This can reduce costs for logistic, rework, or contractual penalties. SemProm was one of three large research projects in Germany focusing on end-to-end digital engineering (see SemProm, Aletheia, and AdiWa).
Top-Floor – Shop-Floor Integration: Enabling faster decision making by integrating heterogeneous systems
Thanks to more transparency and autonomous decision making, factories will adapt automatically to changes in the future. The European research project PLANTCockpit (Production Logistics and Sustainability Cockpit) explores ways to provide production managers with the necessary information to optimize plant efficiency in real-time. Technically speaking, the project develops a framework to bridge the gap between all three layers of the automation pyramid (consisting of ERP systems, manufacturing execution systems, and shop floor automation and control systems). The project develops and validates a platform prototype that is able to integrate all the heterogeneous systems and special purpose solutions, as well as process and visualize the data. This will make monitoring of real-time data easier and will enable faster decision making and more efficient adjustments of production processes (see PlantCockpiT).
Real-Time Value-Add Networks: Towards an Internet of resource efficiency
Supply chains will evolve into highly adaptive networks managed through real-time monitoring and feedback. The RES-COM project (Resource Conservation by Context-Activated Machine-to-Machine Communication) aims to enable factories to reduce CO2 emissions and handle limited natural resources and raw material in an ecologically and economically sensible way. The project wants to make the “Energy Supply Chain” transparent to help optimizing the use of materials. Technologies used include Machine-to-machine communication, radio sensor networks, active product memories, and semantic technologies that enable decentralized decision making. One of the project’s vision is a “no waste” production, “perhaps by adopting a technology like the automatic start-stop mechanism used in automobiles for the field of urban production” (cited from the project web site, see RES-COM).
New Business Models: Becoming predictive, service-oriented, and collaborative
Mass production will become more individualized, leading to customer-specific products, integrated into new service offerings. This will lead to new challenges for manufacturers. The European research project MSEE (Manufacturing Service Ecosystems) focuses on IT solutions and best practices to enable manufacturers to embrace new, service-oriented business models. With four test cases in place, the project experiments on systems and business ideas in order to provide a collaborative industrial model for manufacturing ecosystems. One of the test cases, which is being conducted together with a machine tool manufacturer, focuses on maintenance and after-sales services. It aims at bringing manufacturers, maintenance and after-sales service providers together to dynamically discover, compose, and orchestrate after sales services. This way, companies will be able to offer unprecedented service levels, guaranteeing an almost continuous availability of the machines through very precise and definite service agreements (see MSEE).
Future of Work: The human at the center of production
Work will be less centralized, more fluid, more project-oriented, more virtual and international – even at the shop floor. But how can shift managers organize that? How can they ensure that the production follows the demand curve as closely as needed? The German research project KapaflexCy (see Self-Organized Capacity Planning with Flexibility in Cyber Physical Systems) proved that self-organized capacity planning can work. The project combines a smart production system, real-time analysis and a work force equipped with smart phones. When the production system senses changing demand situations, it notifies the workers directly on their smart phones, for example asking for additional shifts or help on the weekend. The workers accept or deny the proposal depending on their preferences. Individual profiles ensure that work, family, and leisure time are traded efficiently and assignments are fair, transparent and complete.
The mentioned topics and projects can only serve as a snapshot as Industry 4.0 is a broad vision that covers almost all aspects of production (see the SAP thought leadership paper on Idea to Performance, Maximizing Opportunity in a New, Technology-Driven Industrial Revolution).
The following picture shows a radar picture with a more complete selection of publicly funded research projects about Industry 4.0 topics SAP was involved in:
In addition to this, SAP provides solutions that enable manufacturers worldwide to start implementing Industry 4.0 scenarios (for more information check SAP’s Idea to Performance approach).