Supervision of life cycle costs in manufacturing systems

The paper describes how the application of new information and communication technologies in manufacturing systems and technical consumer goods gives companies the possibility to create added value services in the usage phase, for example through remote operations or virtual facility management. In this regard, a communication platform for a digital factory has been developed to make diagnoses of the machine, program changes or process optimisations possible in less time by using an integrated control system, visulization and surveillance. The precise reproduction of the producion system in a virtual world makes it possible to analyse and optimise all influences on the real production in that virtual world.