Development of a Model for describing, evaluating and designing Communication Concepts in Factories in the Context of Industry 4.0

Abstract

Far-reaching changes in the technical and organisational structure have influenced the communication between the elements of a factory. In particular, Industry 4.0 as a contemporary trend in production technology and many related areas of science places new requirements for communication. Thus, expectations comprise a wide variety of effects and potentials of Industry 4.0 on communication in factory systems. Exemplarily, efficiency and productivity increases are most frequently named as effects of industry 4.0. They seem advantageous by industrial enterprises, whereby the raising of these potentials is also a necessary competitive factor. However, such influences can trigger other effects with interdependent impacts on the components of factory systems. These effects can have both positive and negative impacts in factory systems. Still a comprehensive and generally valid description of these aspects is not yet available. Similarly, there is no understanding of the cause-effect relationships between the requirements for communication between the system components of a factory arising from Industry 4.0. The lack of specific understanding of Industry 4.0 caused effects and the cause-effect relationships between the requirements for communication between the factory system components lead to the inability to design effective communication concepts in factory systems. Therefore, existing communication systems remain exposed to undesired effects and leave desired effects underutilized. In order to close this research gap, a holistic model for the description, evaluation and the design of effective communication concepts in factories in the context of Industry 4.0 is in development within the frame of "Komm 4.0", a research project of the Institute for Production Systems and Logistics at Leibniz University Hannover and the WISSENSARCHITEKTUR Laboratory of Knowledge Architecture at TU Dresden. The pursuit of this research project is to describe and evaluate existing communication concepts, as well as design more effective concepts and to adapt previous recommendations in terms of communication concept design where necessary.