Construction of a Simple Management Method in Production Using a Digital Twin Model

In Industry 4.0, advocated by the German government, all the processes related to the manufacturing industry are being optimized using cyber physical systems (CPSs). However, a large initial investment is required to ensure that a factory is Industry 4.0 compliant. Small and medium-sized enterprises cannot expect a return on their investment. Many of their manufacturing methods are make-to-order production and production of numerous models in small quantities, which means that the optimization of processes is difficult. Therefore, in this research, I examine a digital twin model that enables work improvement support by creating analog-type elements, such as visualizing known integrals, and by reconciling a real factory with its virtual one instead of aiming for higher productivity using excessive digitization and automation, such as that in Industry 4.0. I have developed an architecture that makes it possible to find solutions or answers by projecting effective internet of things (IoT) and digital manufacturing (DM) uses at production sites and how to evaluate manufacturing processes on a digital twin model, using production activity based on the plan-do-check-action (PDCA) cycle widely used in the Japanese manufacturing industry. In this paper, the outline and problems of our proposed architecture are explained.