Your next co-workers are cobots

To better understand CPPS, let’s go back to Henry Ford’s production line, where each line would produce only one type of car. With CPPS, it is not the product that goes into a line but instead the entire assembly that moves across the product. In other
words, imagine that physical spaces (called “factories” in the old lexicon) are able to assemble any car of any shape and with all sorts of customized options (Figure 1).

Figure 1. The difference between production line, matrix and CPPS

Why are CPPS necessary? And why now?

There are two main factors driving the need for CPPS. The first is related to customer demands, which are increasingly personalized; and the second consists of technological advances that were not available before.

Recent decades saw companies turning from a product-centric to a customer-centric mindset. As they started to better understand their customers, they also created new markets, leading to personalized products and services.

As an example, in 1958, five toothpaste brands dominated 78 percent of the U.S. market. Today, the Colgate company alone has 51 brands of toothpaste for different market segments. The same is happening in the industrial market: Ericsson started by making a couple of models of radios and antennas. With the arrival of new technologies and shifting market requirements, Ericsson today has more than 250 of these products. Several, if not all, industries are going in the same direction, requiring a high volume and a high product mix.

As a consequence of this change, there is increased complexity in the manufacturing and supply chain, as it is more difficult to forecast demand, leading many manufacturers to carry more days of inventory (Table 1).

Table 1. Market trends and results

Not surprisingly, part of the issue is that high-volume production lines and cells are not designed for great product variability. CPPS promise to change all that by being able to support high volume and a high production mix. It uses an extremely mobile
and cellular-based approach that enables the manufacturing of highly customized products even at very low quantities — commonly called “Lot Size 1.” CPPS disrupt classic production control tasks by enabling a level of manufacturing freedom that
has never been seen before (Table 2).

Table 2. Potential changes promoted by CPPS on production shop floors

A number of technologies are converging to enable CPPS, in particular: a surge in large-bandwidth and low-latency mobile communication technology; and the advent of Industry 4.0, the integration across the full value network that involves more than
integration of machines and systems. Without these, CPPS are not possible, as they require the orchestration of different machines, systems and humans.

The expected advantages of CPPS are numerous:

• Increased efficiency of production setup (although still constrained by production asset availability)
• Decreased number of days for finished goods and intermediate inventory, as production is more likely to turn toward “Assembly to Order” and “Configure to Order,” with intermediate stocks being produced by additive manufacturing technologies
• Increased production flexibility based on business prioritization
• Dissolved spatial fixation and the allocation of resources, making it possible to shift work contents, work sequence and work distribution

The concept of CPPS is revolutionary, introducing a vision of a production shop floor consisting of individual assets that connect as needed and dissolve again, resulting in a continuously changing production layout. It adapts based on business priorities
and customer demand instead of trying to maximize production, which poses the potential risk of creating intermediate stocks and other potential issues.

New demands on assets and people

The polymorphous nature of CPPS results in new requirements for both assets and people. While equipment such as driverless transport systems, robotic systems, handling equipment, sensors and associated IT systems will need integration, workers should also have new qualifications to work in conjunction with machines and cobots.

Augmented reality (AR), for example, will fundamentally change how workers interact with the digital and physical worlds, improving productivity and capability, worker safety and job performance. Functionality such as training and supervision, as well as guided work instructions, will also enable manufacturers to overcome the challenges of an aging workforce and increased requirements for worker qualifications (Figure 2).

Resources that are CPPS enabled are likely to require both centralized and decentralized capabilities. The centralized portion is where large amounts of data can be consolidated and analyzed, as in cloud computing. This is where information such as demand requirements, supply capacity, promotions, social media and other data can be taken into account to determine demand prioritization, for example. The decentralized aspect is what happens on the shop floor: When a worker has cobots that help to assemble what is needed, the cobots need strong technology integration to work seamlessly with the human worker.

Imagine that a worker is building a door for a car. Autonomous guided vehicles bring all the tools, screws and electrical parts of the doors while additive manufacturing produces the door that is being held by a robotic arm. Augmented reality supports workers by instructing how to assemble the door, including any customization (e.g., special color, interior design, features, type of glass) and also checks the assembly quality, possibly advising workers if any improvement is needed (Figure 3).

CPPS is the system that orchestrates the various robots, humans and aspects, such as assembly procedures and processes, on the production shop floor.

Figure 3. Interaction of worker and cyber physical production systems (CPPS)

ARENA2036: researching and designing the smart manufacturing use cases of tomorrow

DXC is part of ARENA2036, a research factory located at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, that investigates disruptive technologies for the manufacturing industry. Several use cases for CPPS are currently being developed, with the goal of developing sustainable production in a flexible and versatile factory.

One example is the Asset Administration Shell (AAS), an initiative that addresses a key issue with smart manufacturing: the high cost of continuous integration whenever a new asset or sensor is used. AAS establishes a common language that can be used between assets to enable:

• Bidding process across assets. Autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) are robots that transport parts and assets across factories. When you have a lot of AGVs, any of them can handle a certain request in a specific factory location. The bidding process helps to optimize the best-fit contender, depending on shop floor requirements and capabilities such as time, load, volume capacity, parts carriage, etc.
• Multiuse of sensors. By using the AAS, sensor information can be reused by applications that were not originally assigned. Using the same example from the AGVs, it might be possible to use laser sensors that were originally intended only for navigation to recognize whether there is a pipe leak or a person unconscious on the shop floor.

The next couple of years will see sensors enabling not only one use case, as is common today, but several use cases, delivering multiple functions (Figure 4).

Figure 4. CPPS development framework

As there are a range of competencies under the same roof, the teams at ARENA2036 are developing other use cases that complement the AAS, exploring themes such as new materials and new business models for the manufacturing industry.

CPPS are a key business differentiator and will require effort

CPPS and cobots are not a short-term investment, and several preconditions need to be met before the benefits can be realized, but there is little question they will become a reality. The question that keeps arising is whether it makes sense to wait and invest in a proven scaled-up technology or whether to start to experiment and tap into the new solutions right away.

Another issue companies should address is that of boundaries. If companies are used to thinking of their ecosystem as being contained within the walls of their factories, they have to face the new reality that their ecosystem goes beyond the basic vendor-service relationship. The example of ARENA 2036 is symbolic: The participants realized they can’t make it alone and are focusing on value that benefits their entire ecosystem.

When thinking about how to enable the manufacturing of tomorrow, it is important to evaluate two parallel tracks, which are: “Start with small projects and learn smart manufacturing by doing” and “Be part of an ecosystem”:

While some manufacturers are still contemplating the best path forward, others have realized there is no need to wait. It is possible to create a lot of value with incremental and adjacent innovation around current processes through production shop-floor
digitalization. By unlocking early value, manufacturers can create a positive effect to stimulate further investments.

But digitalization isn’t an easy journey. It is not uncommon to hear stories about failures, as digitalization requires a diverse set of capabilities that are not always plentiful, including agile developers, data engineers and scientists.

The challenges are known, but the most important point remains that CPPS may be the key enabler for strategic differentiation in the future, which can come via:

• Personalizing customer products and experiences in a sustainable production setting
• Producing a wealth of different products with different characteristics in a single location
• Steering real-time production toward business priorities

All of these abilities can be a disruptive way to serve clients and markets. But remember: The investment is not only in technology and production methods, but also in people who will need to be trained for new ways of working.

About the authors

Wolfgang Lucny is DXC Technology’s manufacturing industry executive, guiding large, global manufacturing companies on their digital transformation journeys. A thought leader in Industry 4.0 and the industrial internet of things (IIoT), Wolfgang is passionate about analytics, robotics, DevOps and agile IT. He has been shaping DXC’s smart connected manufacturing vision with his broad experience in IT, telecommunications and manufacturing, and in DXC’s partner ecosystem.

Alberto Ogura is a DXC Technology digital manufacturing strategist who helps large and midsize clients overcome their challenges with smart manufacturing. He is an advocate for using customer-centric approaches in all smart initiatives to find the right problems to solve. Alberto has extensive experience in both strategy and implementation cases across many industries.