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Institute
The development of renewable energies and smart mobility has profoundly impacted the future of the distribution grid. An increasing bidirectional energy flow stresses the assets of the distribution grid, especially medium voltage switchgear. This calls for improved maintenance strategies to prevent critical failures. Predictive maintenance, a maintenance strategy relying on current condition data of assets, serves as a guideline. Novel sensors covering thermal, mechanical, and partial discharge aspects of switchgear, enable continuous condition monitoring of some of the most critical assets of the distribution grid. Combined with machine learning algorithms, the demands put on the distribution grid by the energy and mobility revolutions can be handled. In this paper, we review the current state-of-the-art of all aspects of condition monitoring for medium voltage switchgear. Furthermore, we present an approach to develop a predictive maintenance system based on novel sensors and machine learning. We show how the existing medium voltage grid infrastructure can adapt these new needs on an economic scale.
Assessment of IS Integration Efforts to Implement the Internet of Production Reference Architecture
(2018)
As part of a collaborative network, manufacturing companies are required to be agile and accelerate their decision making. To do so, a high amount of data is available and needs to be utilized. To enable this from a company internal information system perspective, the Internet of Production (IoP) describes a future information system (IS) architecture. Core element of the IoP is a digital platform building the basis for a network of cognitive systems. To implement and continuously further develop the IoP, manufacturing companies need to make architecture-related decisions concerning the accessibility of data, the processing of the data as well as the visualization of the information. The goal of this research is the development of a decision-support methodology to make those decisions, taking under consideration the evaluated IS integration effort. Therefore, this paper describes the allocation of IS functions and identifies the effort drivers for the respective IS integration by analyzing the integration possibilities. Conclusively this approach will be validated in a case study.
Shared Service Center
(2018)
Nowadays manufacturing companies are facing many different challenges as they are finding themselves in a dynamic and complex environment. Industrie 4.0 and its principles can help to manage these challenges. For example, companies should follow a principle called continuity of engineering. This continuity enables parallel development and production planning. One important measure to allow a continuity of engineering is the appropriate integration of IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology) within the company as well as along the whole value chain. Meant is the networking of machines and plant equipment with IT systems. The management of information resources for example allows data based decisions. Therefore, companies need to have a profound knowledge about the relationship between the integration and information processing of information systems.
There is a common understanding that a certain degree of IT and OT integration highly depends on the company’s typology, which we found out can be represented by the company’s business model. Therefore, we developed a methodology to identify the company’s business model and to derive relevant success factors, both based on a workshop-concept. Based on expert interviews, this enabled us to link the business model or company’s typology with the most important information management principles.
Especially in SMEs of the manufacturing industry, data is not sufficiently used to optimize processes. Some companies have implemented lighthouse “Industrie 4.0 projects”, but struggle with a broader approach. We present the results of a survey we performed that underlines that statement. There are approaches in the literature that propose generic architecture frameworks tackling the mentioned challenge. Still, most of them do not include the existing IT architecture of a company and fail to propose a comprehensive solution delivering a real benefit to companies. Therefore, companies cannot easily use them. For that reason, we developed and tested an Industrie 4.0 software platform architecture companies can use as a blueprint for their own implementation. This architecture is presented in this paper as well as the structured VDI 2221 approach we used to develop it.
People’s (and goods’) transport will fundamentally change due to autonomous driving and emission-reduced drives. This enables new mobility concepts, especially for inner-city transport of people. An example for such autonomous vehicles are so-called people-movers: small electrically powered busses carrying up to 15 passengers from individual departure points to individual destinations. Next to the research regarding autonomous driving and alternative types of drives, it is also necessary to study and research how future users are willing to use new types of inner-city transport. Such transport needs specific information platforms organizing the trips and routing the people mover. Those platforms do not yet exist.
As part of our research, we developed an exemplary people-mover platform architecture. We were using methods from agile software development to gather customer requirements, as well as an information logistics concept as a validated link between user requirements and the architecture. We designed the architecture using microservices to enable growth and adaptability at the same time. As the research is still going on, these characteristics are necessary in order to keep building a customer-focused platform for the inner-city mobility of the future.
Management of information and the IT systems it is stored in becomes a crucial capability for the industry. However, companies are struggling with the management of the various requirements and frequent changes of technology. Thus, IT complexity has become a major challenge for companies. At the same time, especially manufacturing companies are striving to implement Industrie 4.0 concepts. Many of these even have developed an Industrie 4.0 roadmap including various projects to change the company. Companies can develop such roadmaps by applying the Industrie 4.0 Maturity Index that gives a broad view on necessary capabilities for Industrie 4.0.
In our research, we analyzed data sets from over 10 manufacturing companies that have performed an Industrie 4.0 maturity assessment. Our hypothesis was that IT complexity challenges are hindering the implementation of Industrie 4.0 roadmaps significantly. We could prove this hypothesis at least for the companies analyzed and give insights on the specific challenges. Based on our analysis, we conclude our article by giving concrete recommendations on how to tackle IT complexity.
Der Sondermaschinenbauer HAHN GROUP befindet sich auf internationalem Expansionskurs. Mit Unterstützung des FIR an der RWTH Aachen hat die HAHN GROUP nun ihren IT- und Digitalisierungsbereich, der aufgrund der Expansion eine Reorganisation benötigte, neu aufgestellt und damit eine internationale Standardisierung der internen Prozesse erreicht.
Ziel der Zusammenarbeit war die Schaffung flexibler und gleichzeitig standardisierter, standortunabhängiger IT-Strukturen.
IT-Strategien gestalten
(2019)
Oft scheitert jene aber schon an einer fehlenden Ausrichtung an der Unternehmensstrategie und an der IT-Komplexität, die Effizienz verhindert und mitunter hohe Kosten verursacht. Um diese Herausforderungen meistern zu können, ist es unabdingbar, eine unternehmensindividuelle IT-Strategie zu entwickeln. Damit dieses Vorhaben leichter und besser gelingen kann, hat das FIR ein Whitepaper zu diesem Thema veröffentlicht.
