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AbstractThe comprehensive approach to the digital factory has become a subject of paramount importance to all major automotivecompanies, and the chances offered by it are numerous. However, extensive preliminary work is still necessary and thus requiresa tremendous effort, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) which must be integrated as suppliers ofcomponents. The purposes of the present article are to describe, in a general way, how the vision of the digital factory can beimplemented in reality and to outline the problems, which must still be expected in the further course of the endeavour. Inaddition, the status of research relating to the digital factory at IMAB, Anlagenprojektierung und Materialflusslogistik at theTechnical University of Clausthal, and the fields of future developmental activity are illustrated through the use of an example.# 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Keywords: Digital factory; Simulation; Factory planning 1. IntroductionAn old proverb, to err is human, provides the bestexplanation for the endeavour to develop a digitalfactory. The entire life cycle of products andproduction plants requires planning efforts from thevery beginning, and this planning work must beperformed by humans. In conclusion, this implies thatplanning is always subject to error and that the failureto recognise the errors in due time results in considerable problems during the respective imple-mentation phase. 43858
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The objective of the digital factory isderived from this simple fact.The object is to secure products and processesduring an early phase of development and also toaccompany the evolution of products and productionwith the use of digital models. Besides that, theextension of the Digital Factory towards internal andexternal logistics and business processes shouldenhance the networking and the overall view of thecooperating enterprises. For SME’s it is especiallyimportant in the long termto integrate the fundamentalidea of the digital factory into the supply chain to gaincompetitive advantages. Through simulation ofvarious scenarios it should be possible for these enterprises to dimension storage and distributionconcepts and to derive new organizational structures.This visionary approach towards the digital factorycould be described as a ‘digital enterprise’.Even if a common understanding prevails in andamong the companies in setting objectives for thedigital factory, the definitions of the concept and theemphasis in the course of developmental activities willstill differ. The fact is that the implementation of thedigital factory will result in enormous savings in timeand costs. However, the efforts necessary forimplementation have in part been underestimatedand are still underestimated.Only a few decades ago, computers were firstintroduced into industrial production. More and morepartial aspects of planning and development work weresupported by software tools specifically designed forparticular applications. The first savings in time andcosts were achieved, and simulation techniques beganto prove their worth as a useful instrument for solvingcomplex, dynamic problems. Rapid, continuing pro-gress in technology and the associated increase in theefficiency of computer systems stimulated the idea ofcombining and concentrating software solutions, withtheir predominantly insular character, to form largenetworks and of creating a continuous chain, all thewayfrom planning to production. The objectives of thisconcept, designated as ‘computer-integrated manufac-turing’ (CIM), were to maintain a continuous flow ofinformation and to interconnect all associated factorydepartments by means of an interdepartmental infor-mation system for electronic data processing [4]. Theintention was to achieve the highest possible level ofintegration for inpidual computer-aided subsystemsin the factory organization. Thus, an all-encompassingsolution was envisaged, from the computer-aidedfunctions of designing (CAD), over operations planning(CAP), manufacturing (CAM), and quality assurance(CAQ), all the way to automated production. Nowa-days, this vision is regarded as a near-failure since theinterface problems between the various software toolsand the different programming languages for systemcontrol have proved to be an insurmountable barrier.Nevertheless, the basic conclusions derived from CIMdevelopment have resulted in substantial progress,especially in the fields of production planning andcontrol. Hence, the real approach to the CIM conceptcan be viewed as amajor success, and the CIMpioneerscan also be regarded as having paved the way for thedigital factory.Some of the problems posed by the digital factoryare similar to those presented by the CIM concept. Forthis reason, a few questions are important for thefurther development of the digital factory. What is thecurrent developmental status of the digital factory?Which targets have been set? What does the digitalfactory mean to small and medium-sized enterprises?How much digital factory is actually required byvarious companies? The answers to these questionsare decisive for the success or failure of the digitalfactory and are by no means trivial. The object of thepresent publication is to explain a few aspects of thesequestions, to stimulate discussions for obtaining abetter understanding of the problems posed by thedigital factory, and thus to derive new approaches to arealistic implementation.