Factories Of The Future

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.This book presents results relevant in the manufacturing research field, that are mainly aimed at closing the gap between the academic investigation and the industrial application, in collaboration with manufacturing companies. Several hardware and software prototypes represent the key outcome of the scientific contributions that can be grouped into five main areas, representing different perspectives of the factory domain:1) Evolutionary and reconfigurable factories to cope with dynamic production contexts characterized by evolving demand and technologies, products and processes.2) Factories for sustainable production, asking for energy efficiency, low environmental impact products and processes, new de-production logics, sustainable logistics.3) Factories for the People who need new kinds of interactions between production processes, machines, and human beings to offer a more comfortable and stimulating working environment.4) Factories for customized products that will be more and more tailored to the final user’s needs and sold at cost-effective prices.5) High performance factories to yield the due production while minimizing the inefficiencies caused by failures, management problems, maintenance.This books is primarily targeted to academic researchers and industrial practitioners in the manufacturing domain.

FACTORIES OF THE FUTURE The book provides insight into various technologies adopted and to be adopted in the future by industries and measures the impact of these technologies on manufacturing performance and their sustainability. Businesses and manufacturers face a slew of demands beyond the usual issues of staying agile and surviving in a competitive landscape within a rapidly changing world. Factories of the Future deftly takes the reader through the continuous technology changes and looks ten years down the road at what manufacturing will mostly look like. The book is divided into two parts: Emerging technologies and advancements in existing technologies. Emerging technologies consist of Industry 4.0 and 5.0 themes, machine learning, intelligent machining, advanced maintenance, reliability, and green manufacturing. The advances of existing technologies consist of digital manufacturing, artificial intelligence in machine learning, Internet of Things, product life cycle, and the impact of factories on the future of manufacturing performance of the manufacturing industries. Readers will find in this illuminating book: A comprehensive discussion of almost all emerging technologies, including “green” manufacturing; An overview of the social, economic, and technical aspects of these technologies; An explanation of these technological advancements on manufacturing performance, through case studies and other analytical tools.

This edited monograph presents a selection of research contributions on eco-factories of the future. The topical focus lies on cutting-edge solutions from academia and industry that enable and support companies in their efforts towards sustainable manufacturing. The authors provide an overview over recent developments, aiming at a comprehensive understanding of eco- and cost-efficient manufacturing from machine to factory level. The solutions contributed by leading research institutions and companies have been mostly implemented and evaluated in industrial pilot projects across Europe. The methodological approaches cover topics such as factory planning, manufacturing simulation, energy management as well as life cycle evaluation. The target audience comprises industry experts and decision makers as well as researchers in the field of sustainable manufacturing.

Productivity enhancement is a major concern for all manufacturing enterprises. Productivity enhancement can be achieved in many ways and many facets of its problems have been investigated over the last decades. A number of methods, tools and technologies have emerged to efficiently increase productivity and rationalize management of manufacturing enterprises. International experts from both academia and industry share their experiences in this collection of articles, contributing to the latest advances in the many facets of productivity enhancement in manufacturing enterprises. Themes and visions are detailed on factories of the future, new management approaches, manufacturing system integration and manufacturing information systems. These technical areas can be grouped into four major sections: Factories of the future; Techniques and tools for automated manufacturing; Robotics; and Industrial applications. The papers illustrate a pattern of valuable and interesting approaches to the fascinating problem of designing a new generation of robots with high enough performance capabilities to be used in an industrial context.

The papers presented at the Second International Conference on Robotics and Factories of the Future held in San Diego, California, USA during July 28-31, 1987 are compiled in this volume. Over two hundred participants attended the conference, made technical presentations and discussed about various aspects of manufacturing, robotics and factories of the future. The number of papers published in this volume and the number of unpublished presentations at the conference indicates the evidance of growing interest in the areas of CAD/CAM, robotics and their role in future factories. The conference consisted of five plenary sessions, twenty three technical sessions, workshops, and exhibits from local industries and educational institutions. I wish to acknowledge with many thanks the contributions of all the authors who presented their work at the conference and submitted the manuscripts for publication. It is also my pleasure to acknowledge the role of keynote, banquet, and plenary sessions speakers whose contributions added greatly to the success of the conference. My sincere thanks to all session chairmen. I wish that the series of the International Conferences on Robotics and Factories of the Future which was initiated in 1984 in Charlotte, North Carolina will have a major impact on the use of robots and computers in the automated factories of the future.

The manufacturing world is undergoing a massive digital transformation. Smart and connected infrastructures powered by artificial intelligence are bringing about yet another industrial revolution. Data based innovation is creating unprecedented opportunities for optimizing processes and gaining competitive advantage through new business models. In this book, we follow the magnificent story of the first three industrial revolutions in the tracks of great scientists, engineers and industrialists of yesterday, all the way up to cyber physical systems that will redefine the manufacturing value chain. Smart manufacturing revolution is rebuilding the factory from the ground up, changing old ways of doing business. Join me on this journey where we cover all the basic concepts and enabling technologies, then move on to formulate viable strategies on the path to Industry 4.0; for creating the Factories of the Future.

The complete shop floor automation - a "lights out factory", where workers initially set up all machines, turn off the lights, lock the door and the machine churns up the parts - remains an unfulfilled dream. Yet when we look at the enormity of the process of automation and integration even for the most simply conceived part factory, we can recognize that automation has been applied and is being applied, more so when it made sense from a cost/benefit standpoint. It is our nature to be dissatisfied with near term progress, but when we realize how short a time the tools to do that automation have been available, the progress is clearly noteworthy - considering the multitudes of factors and the environment we have to deal with. Most of the automa tion problems we confront in today's environment are multidisciplinary in nature. They require not just the knowledge and experience in various distinct fields but good cooperation from different disci plined organizations to adequately comprehend and solve such problems. In Volume III we have many examples that reflect the current state of the art techniques of robotics and plant automation. The papers for Volume III have been arranged in a logical order of automation planning, automated assembly, robot programming and simula tion, control, motion coordination, communication and networking to factories of the future.