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Part I
Introduction to Reconfiguration for Industry 4.0
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1 Introduction
Industry 4.0 (I 4.0) and its importance in manufacturing systems/enterprises have attracted great attention among academicians and practitioners. It is mainly because of the importance of using I 4.0 in reconfiguration of manufacturing systems/enterprises. In this chapter, history of industrial revolutions, manufacturing systems as a cornerstone of economy, and reconfiguration of these manufacturing enterprises/systems will also be discussed.
1.1 Background
Industry 4.0 or the so-called fourth industrial revolution (I 4.0) was coined in 2011 by an initiative of the German federal government along with universities and private companies. This new concept “Industry 4.0” was introduced into manufacturing enterprises for updating the level of manufacturing systems for industry modernization programs. Industry 4.0 was, initially, suggested and proposed as a strategic program to develop and enhance the existing production systems by upgrading/updating traditional manufacturing systems to advanced manufacturing systems with the aim of increasing productivity, efficiency, and its associated effectiveness.
Industry 4.0 represents a new concept of industrial stage of the manufacturing systems by integrating a set of exponential emerging and convergent manufacturing technologies that add value to the whole product life cycle starting from innovation and product design until final product. Nowadays, Industry 4.0 is one of the most trending topics in both professional and academic fields. It also considers the integration of the factory/plant with the entire product life cycle and supply chain activities (Garbie and Garbie, 2020a–c).
Smart manufacturing is appearing as an overlapping definition of advanced manufacturing, which is representing the heart of Industry 4.0, which is rooted for this new concept. Smart manufacturing is an adaptable system where flexible resources incorporating manufacturing and assembly systems automatically adjust production processes for different types of products and changing conditions. Thus, this increases quality, productivity, flexibility, and agility and can also help to achieve customized products at a large scale and in a sustainable way with better resource consumption (Garbie, 2013a and b).
Nowadays, the industry needs a radical change, and it is the role of Industry 4.0 to address this change. The core idea of Industry 4.0 is to use the exponential emerging information and manufacturing technologies in the industry. Implementing Industry 4.0 through new advanced technologies such as Industrial Internet of Thing (IIoT), big data analytics, digitalization, cloud computing, cybersecurity, virtual and augmented reality, and additive manufacturing is crucial and deserves high appreciation from academicians and practitioners (Garbie and Garbie, 2020a).
Physically, the Industry 4.0 concept has a very complex technology architecture of manufacturing systems, which is one of the main concerns in this new industrial stage. For these reasons, reconfiguration of manufacturing systems/enterprises is becoming an urgent issue to deal with.
1.2 Manufacturing Systems
Designing manufacturing systems is one of the major challenges that these reconfigurable systems face in the future, if they are not designed according to the scientific and hybrid ways. Design of manufacturing systems will rely on three common production types: job shop manufacturing systems, cellular (focused) manufacturing systems and its associated flexible cells and/or systems, and flow shop manufacturing systems. Although job shop is not based on scientific approach, it is recommended to exist as a functional or reminder cells. Designing flow manufacturing system is based on the sequence of operations, and there is no significant design approach to build it. Cellular or focused manufacturing system has many techniques to design it and to assign machines into machine cells and parts into part families. In this way, cellular manufacturing system (CMS) is the most recommended approach to design manufacturing systems for reconfiguration (Garbie, 2003; Garbie et al., 2005).
Besides the physical design of production systems in terms of allocation machines into machine cells and parts into part families, there are many issues oriented to help in analysis, investigation, and design of these systems. These issues are represented into forecasting demand and mass customization, innovative products design and business models, manufacturing complexity, reconfigurable machine tools, and lean thinking and agile manufacturing philosophy. Forecasting or predictive demand is the first step toward building manufacturing systems. Without good accurate estimation of future demand, there is no perfect design of manufacturing systems, which consist of the required resources (machines, personnel, management issues, etc.). Mass customization is coming in parallel to forecasting demand, and it is used to interpret the meaning of forecasting demand into two main terminology or concepts: mass regionalization and mass personalization. Designing new products or redesigning the existing ones, which is known as a product development that satisfy customers in terms of quality and quantity, is the most important target for any industrial organization for running revenues and enhancing the performance. As such, innovative designs must be incorporated not only in designing product(s) but also in manufacturing system itself.
Nowadays, design for complexity has drawn huge attention from many researchers, analysts, and designers to focus on manufacturing operations and processes including assembly/disassembly, quality processes and inspection, inventory management and suppliers (sourcing), information design systems. Manufacturing complexity is a very complicated systemic approach that simultaneously considers optimizing complexity level taking into consideration complexity parameters and constraints (Garbie and Shikdar, 2011a and b; Garbie, 2012). Resources, especially machine tools, must be fully exploited as one of the major elements of manufacturing systems. These machine tools are known as reconfigurable machine tools (RMTs), and the associated reconfigurable manufacturing systems or enterprises are created and installed. Reconfigurable machine tools or equipment (RMTs/RMEs) are considered as the first and basic level of reconfigurable manufacturing systems. The RMTs/RMEs are divided into two main parts: physical hardware reconfiguration of machines and software reconfiguration. Both parts (hardware and software) are representing the big challenges of reconfiguration of machines and further manufacturing systems.
Lean production and agile manufacturing are considered two of the most important competitive manufacturing strategies in industrial environment (Garbie et al., 2008a and b). Lean production or manufacturing is mainly focused on minimizing costs (e.g., eliminating wastes) of the production processes or manufacturing activities inside the plant, while agile manufacturing is working on minimizing time, which belongs to the top management operations of industrial organizations. Both manufacturing and management strategies are necessary to be adopted in manufacturing systems for Industry 4.0.
1.3 Industrial Revolutions
History of Industrial Revolutions has passed through four main phases starting from the first Industrial Revolution (Industry 1.0 or I 1.0), second Industrial Revolution (Industry 2.0 or I 2.0), third Industrial Revolution (Industry 3.0 or I 3.0), and the current Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0 or I 4.0). The first Industrial Revolution (I 1.0) occurred actually at the beginning of 19th century, continuing until almost the end of this century. It is also known as steam power revolution, which was created as a prime mover, and machine tools were used for manufacturing processes by distributing power among these machines mechanically.
The second Industrial Revolution (I 2.0) started officially in the beginning of the 20th century with the invention of electricity. The electricity added a new technology to the manufacturing processes through machines (e.g., electric motor) to be easily controlled in terms of power consumption and layout management inside the plants. The third Industrial Revolution (I 3.0) initially came in the second half of the 20th century with the introduction of computers, electronics, information technology (IT), and automation. The I 3.0 changed the philosophy of manufacturing from mass production to mass customization due to more flexibility added to the machines by using computers (e.g., CNC, programmable logic controller).
The fourth Industrial Revolution (I 4.0) started actually after 2010 with more comprehensive application of manufacturing technologies created from I 3.0 due to the cheaper cost of these technologies and increased usage of the Internet. These technologies such as sensors and actuators, which can be communicated through the Internet to enable different resources of system (e.g., machines, employees, customers, suppliers, products), connect on real time through something called Industrial Internet of Things (IIoTs). Industry 4.0 requires exponential advanced manufacturing and information technologies more than previous industrial revolutions (I 1.0, I 2.0, and I 3.0). Advanced manufacturing technologies are the basic requirement to implement Industry 4.0. The target of using advanced manufacturing technologies is different toward implementing Industry 4.0 in terms of applications. The new advanced manufacturing technologies are representing into Internet of Things and cyber physical system, big data analytics, digitalization, cloud computing, cybersecurity, virtual and augmented reality, and additive manufacturing. Some of these advanced manufacturing technologies are classified either for virtual environment and/or for physical environment. Implementation of Industry 4.0 in manufacturing systems or enterprises is one of the most significant challenges facing these systems or enterprises during the next period. These challenges will be represented through risks, critical success factors, and enablers of implementation.
1.4 Reconfiguration of Manufacturing Systems
Designing manufacturing systems, especially cellular (focused) systems, and/or converting traditional production systems (e.g., Job Shops) to focused (cellular) systems has drawn more attention from academicians and designers during the past four decades as a requirement of the reconfiguration processes of manufacturing systems design. This represents a big problem and a huge task for manufacturers and academicians, which nearly all manufacturing enterprises around the world are still working as a job shop. This designing and/or reconfiguration process means breaking or dividing the existing functional (process) layout into independently and distinctly focused manufacturing cells to gain the reconfiguration benefits. CMS has emerged as a promising alternative manufacturing system to deal with these issues especially in the next period and as a competence for the global manufacturing providing a solution to solve this crisis in industrial enterprises (Garbie, 2003; Garbie et al., 2005).
Due to the emergence of Industry 4.0 and/or smart manufacturing, manufacturing enterprises in most of the world require to be reconfigured and/or reorganized. Because of Industry 4.0, great political and economic perspectives maybe changed. Some manufacturing companies will workless from business and others need to be merged with others (Garbie, 2016, 2017a and b). In addition, a big effect will be represented in unemployment. The manufacturing enterprises will start to deal intensively for better utilization of resources (e.g., equipment, machines) and human resources. There are many issues needed to be addressed to cope with Industry 4.0. The most important issue is the opportunity to learn new skills and techniques (Garbie and Garbie, 2020a–c). The other issues include operational parameters such as manufacturing complexity, designing hybrid manufacturing systems, applied manufacturing strategies and philosophies, innovation and product development, management for change, and good accounting system.
Reconfigurable manufacturing enterprises are increasingly recognized today as a necessity for the global economic growth due to Industry 4.0. The idea of reconfiguration was appearing as a new manufacturing strategy almost two decades ago (Garbie, 2016). The reconfiguration strategy will allow customized needs and requirements in not only producing a variety of products and changing market demand, but also in changing the manufacturing enterprise itself (Garbie, 2014a and b). This reconfiguring is not only in the physical system but also in every item involved in the infrastructure. One feature with respect to Industry 4.0 is how the existing manufacturing enterprises are reconfigured to adapt changes in market (in terms of new product and change in forecasting demand) and advanced manufacturing technologies, thereby enabling an enterprise to be responsive to a dynamic market demand. Based on these concepts and because of Industry 4.0, manufacturing enterprises in most of the world require to be reconfigured and/or reorganized especially the manufacturing firms. In addition, a big effecting due to adopting Industry 4.0 will be represented in unemployment (Garbie, 2014a and c). Unemployment has become a top global concern. Now, the number one concern is the fear of unemployment caused by the global economic crisis especially in North American and Western European countries and the Asia Pacific, although the group of eight industrialized nations (the United States of America, United Kingdom, Germa...
