SMART FACE

Brief description

The aim of SMART FACE is to develop distributed production planning and control systems. This is designed to adapt manufacturing structures to the demands of small-series production; parts to be assembled are individually requested via a network-supported application and self-organised machines distribute their workloads, making central sequence planning unnecessary. The advantages of this approach are flexibility, easy adaptation and an improved response to unforeseen changes in the workflow.

The challenge

Today's production lines are characterised by high quantities and the highest possible efficiency. Productivity is the focus of large-series production. These rigid, inflexible and centrally controlled workflows guarantee economically efficient, but not individualised production. However, customised products are becoming increasingly important in many sectors. Configurators, for instance, for passenger cars or furniture, allow customers to shape design and execution to meet their specific needs. There is now a trend towards small-series production. But taking individual customer requests into account in the production of small product quantities is both expensive and time consuming due to long retooling times.

Aim

In order to make small series production both flexible and economically efficient, the SMART FACE project is developing new approaches for extremely flexible production planning and control. Single production steps will be supplied with parts and materials as required and always on time. This saves resources and avoids idle running.

Technologies

The core of this new approach is a production system with distributed control where materials and production parts make their own way from one machine to the next. This calls for continuous data exchange between the smart objects combined with flexible control. The key to this is smart, networked sensors that scan the environment and communicate both with each other and their surroundings. The continuous exchange of data can be used in this way, for instance, to directly organise supplier relations (when is the next delivery due?). So-called agents, equipped with appropriate software modules, check the exchange of information and decisions regarding logistics workflows. This form of distributed artificial intelligence ensures that production is self-organised to a large extent.

Use case

The SMART FACE project will examine various fundamental challenges in pilot applications in automotive production. The key questions here are: How can information flows be parallelised with the material flow? How can responses to unforeseen changes in the production workflow be improved in terms of both time and quality? How is the intelligence of both objects and their sensors defined and which decision patterns must be defined? The solutions to all of the above challenges will be tested in the specific application case and are to be transferred to other sectors. Starting with the weaknesses in today's production methods, which basically do not permit any economically efficient small series production, new planning algorithms will be developed and integrated into an operating concept. Software components will also be designed which meet with the standards set by the automotive sector. The distributed material flow system will be simulated with a demonstrator and validated under real-life conditions.

Partners: LinogistiX GmbH (consortium leader), Continental Automotive GmbH, Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG, F/L/S Fuzzy Logik Systeme GmbH, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e. V., Lanfer Automation GmbH & Co. KG, TU Dortmund, SICK AG, VOLKSWAGEN AG