Internet of Things Applications in Future Manufacturing

Abstract

Future manufacturing is driven by a number of emerging requirements including: The need for a shift from capacity to capability, which aims at increasing manufacturing flexibility towards responding to variable market demand and achieving high-levels of customer fulfillment. Support for new production models, beyond mass production. Factories of the future prescribe a transition from conventional make-to-stock (MTS) to emerging make-to-order (MTO), configure-to-order (CTO) and engineer-to-order (ETO) production models. The support of these models can render manufacturers more demand driven. For example, such production models are a key prerequisite for supporting mass customization, as a means of increasing variety with only minimal increase in production costs. Atrend towards profitable proximity sourcing and production, which enables the development of modular products based on common platforms and configurable options. This trend requires also the adoption of hybrid production and sourcing strategies towards producing modular platforms centrally, based on the participation of suppliers, distributors and retailers. As part of this trend, stakeholders are able to tailor final products locally in order to better serve local customer demand. Improved workforce engagement, through enabling people to remain at the heart of the future factory, while empowering them to take efficient decisions despite the ever-increasing operational complexity of future factories. Workforce engagement in the factories of the future is typically associated with higher levels of collaboration between workers within the same plant, but also across different plants.

Topics & Concepts