Case study on technological applications for production planning and control in the context of industry 4.0

In the course of the fourth industrial revolution, a rapid technological change proceeds in the manufacturing industry. Numerous new technologies enable multiple opportunities for industrial applications. In order to keep pace with this development, companies are forced to cope with a high amount of new technologies and arising application trends. For a successful positioning, knowledge of the industrial relevance of possible applications and the technologies associated with their implementation is required in particular. In this context, the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT and the Centre of Excellence in Production Informatics and Control (EPIC CoE) conducted a two-stage case study to identify and evaluate promising industry 4.0 based application fields, such as self-optimizing production scheduling. The case study is proceeded as part of the European Union's Horizon 2020 research project under grant No. 739592. Within the first stage of this project a systematic screening for industrial application fields was conducted. Several potential application fields were identified and their advantages and disadvantages outlined. Furthermore, the application fields were evaluated according to their potential industrial impact and maturity level. In the second stage, technologies for the implementation of the most promising application fields were identified. At this, technologies were investigated and evaluated according to their readiness level for the identified application fields. In this paper, the methodology as well as the results of the first stage of the study are presented.