Cloud-based platform to facilitate access to manufacturing IT

Today information technology is one of the main enablers of efficient production due to its ability to support manufacturing planning, execution, and optimization. However, most of the tools that provide these features are extremely complex and require on-site installation, individual configuration, administration, maintenance, etc. In many cases, the costs and efforts involved are too high for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to bear. As a result, such companies are often unable to exploit the full potentials of manufacturing-related software systems. To overcome this problem, an IT infrastructure has been developed at Fraunhofer IPA which makes it easier to access manufacturing IT. The associated IT services, which are also accessible to SMEs, offer features for product tracking, process monitoring and control, etc., and are embedded in a cloud-based infrastructure, configurable to specific factory demands and accessible via apps (e.g. mobile devices). This paper addresses the relevant infrastructure requirements, such as security, equipment integration, IT service management, workflow management and execution as well as user-specific app configuration. The basic architecture of the developed infrastructure is then discussed on the basis of these. The concept of engineering apps is taken as an example to underline the main benefits of such an infrastructure.