TransSIMS: Transition to Smart Industrial Production Systems in Industry 4.0 (TransSIMS)

Building new Industry 4.0 plants on a “greenfield” is currently hardly realistic for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Giving the long life-times of production facilities, the solution is to be found in transforming the existing machines and systems into interconnected smart machines and systems. For that, IoT (Internet of Things) technologies, which are universally applicable and easy to use, can be exploited to increase the overall plant and equipment efficiency.

A lack of sensor technology, software and IT connectivity prevent networked production holistically. As a result, production processes can not be monitored and the failure of individual components can not be foreseen. Given that typical life times for machines is up to 30 years, investments in upgrading those machines are essential.

On the market, there is no universal solution for this called retrofitting of existing production plants, making the transition to Industry 4.0 particularly difficult for SMEs. They do not have the ability to develop and manufacture highly complex and custom-made solutions for small lot sizes. In addition to the system architecture, one of the greatest difficulties is the integration of the required sensors into the assembly space. Standard shaped sensors can not be used due to the individual installation situation in the machines. Therefore, one of the objectives of this CORNET proposal is the development of cost- effective and individual shape-adapted sensor systems for small lot sizes. This is one of the basic requirements for SMEs for the development in this important market segment.

The project targets the different players in the value chain and brings them together on this topic to overcome important hurdles hindering the widespread deployment of smart sensing systems in industrial IoT applications. With production companies not yet finding their way to integrators, the offering from integrators still being limited and retrofitting not being a conventional business model for machine builders, smart sensing system deployment is often approached as a “one-off” action, entrailing higher costs and a potential mismatch between the needs and the offering.

The results of this project are published on the projectwebsite.