Flexible integration of layout planning and adaptive assembly systems in digital enterprises

The agility and adaptability of an enterprise becomes more and more a desired feature and a key factor of success. Especially manufacturing enterprises have to be able to respond quickly to both external and internal changes. This includes the ability to plan the optimal factory configuration and the assembly processes with little effort in short time. The tools of the Digital Factory support manufacturing enterprises shortening planning time and increasing planning quality. As a motivation of our work in the field of Enterprise Application Integration, a scenario is described, which reveals how a transformable manufacturing enterprise reacts to market changes with the support of digital tools. Motivated by our scenario we developed an integration solution called Stuttgart Integration Platform. A main role in our approach plays a solution for the Digital Factory, which stores all needed information about the planned facility layouts and assembly processes. The paper presents our central integration solution Champagne, and three integrated systems: the Digital Factory Solution, the Factory Planning Table and the Assembly Configuration Tool.