An agile information processing framework for high pressure die casting applications in modern manufacturing systems

Modern production of high pressure die casting parts raise new challenges regarding planning, scheduling and analyzing of the underlying manufacturing process. The smart factory approach and the research and development pursuit of the fourth industrial revolution necessitate the refurbishment and upgrade of already existing manufacturing systems and the introduction of new information and communication technologies (ICT) in automation systems in order to achieve a holistic, company-wide information exchange and a pervasive traceability of product and manufacturing data. According to this approach, previous programmable logical controls (PLC), established business intelligence solutions and existing manufacturing execution systems (MES) with mutually lacking interfaces are integrated into a new ecosystem for planning, executing and analysis applications. Due to the fact that each system persists on its own user interface, the implementation has to be strongly coupled to a user centered design of innovative human machine interfaces, joined into one distributed, networked application. In this paper, an agile information processing framework for foundry purposes is presented. Every underlying application is accessible via web-based user interfaces providing control of each single system. This leads into a service orientated architecture triggering the individual underlying systems as services, which are connected using web communication technology to exchange data along a shared information model. The data storage is modular to ensure scalability and interoperability with other manufacturing departments. During the actual manufacturing process, different services like inline data mining analysis are deployed and the results are visualized in user demanded dashboards and reports. For new requirements in business intelligence and MES the developed interfaces are provided in a unique library and a content management system. The described architecture enhances the development of new information applications, accelerates the planning and execution process and is completely orientated to the demands of users, as fast planning procedures and analysis driven user interfaces. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.