2018/02/07 by Seppo Sierla, Ville Kyrki, Pekka Aarnio +1 · 96 citations
Computer Science · Engineering · #Automation #Computer science #Context (archaeology) #Control reconfiguration #Digital Transformation in Industry #Digital manufacturing #Embedded system #Engineering #Flexible and Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems #Manufacturing Process and Optimization #Manufacturing engineering #Markup language #Original equipment manufacturer #Product (mathematics) #Product design #Product engineering #Software engineering #Systems engineering #World Wide Web #XML #cs.RO #cs.SE
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.compind.2018.01.013
published in Computers in Industry 97, 34-46 (Elsevier BV)
openalex publication_date 2018/02/07 · arxiv created 2021/03/25 · arxiv updated 2021/04/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
This paper proposes a new concept in which a digital twin derived from a digital product description will automatically perform assembly planning and orchestrate the production resources in a manufacturing cell. Thus the manufacturing cell has generic services with minimal assumptions about what kind of product will be assembled, while the digital product description is designed collaboratively between the designer at an OEM and automated services at potential manufacturers. This has several advantages. Firstly, the resulting versatile manufacturing facility can handle a broad variety of products with minimal or no reconfiguration effort, so it can cost-effectively offer its services to a large number of OEMs. Secondly, a solution is presented to the problem of performing concurrent product design and assembly planning over the organizational boundary. Thirdly, the product design at the OEM is not constrained to the capabilities of specific manufacturing facilities. The concept is presented in general terms in UML and an implementation is provided in a 3D simulation environment using Automation Markup Language for digital product descriptions. Finally, two case studies are presented and applications in a real industrial context are discussed.