Page 27 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2020

SERVICE-BASED ARCHITECTURES IN PRODUCTION SYSTEMS:
CHALLENGES, SOLUTIONS & EXPERIENCES

Thomas Kuhn, Frank Schnicke, Pablo Oliveira Antonino

Fraunhofer Institute IESE, Kaiserslautern, Germany

ABSTRACT Industrie 4.0 enables both more efficient and more flexible
production. Automation of current production systems is
The automation industry is undergoing many changes. The often realized with programmable logic controllers (PLC).
fourth industrial revolution (Industrie 4.0) is the answer to PLCs automate repetitive tasks that are executed in cyclic
changing markets and increasing quality requirements. programs. They execute a series of manufacturing steps for
Customers demand individualized products and smaller lot each workpiece, like a sequence of milling or drilling
sizes. This requires the end-to-end digitalization of operations. PLC controllers were introduced in the 1970s in
manufacturing processes and raises the need for system the third industrial revolution to automate repetitive tasks.
architectures for next-generation automation systems. Later, additional systems, e.g., robots with their own
Within the context of the national reference project BaSys 4, proprietary operating systems, but also enterprise resource
we researched a service-based architecture for the planning (ERP) systems and manufacturing execution
automation domain and integrated it with ongoing systems (MES) were added to improve resource
standardization activities. Service-oriented Architecture management and enable more flexible production of product
(SoA) is a proven architecture pattern from the domain of IT variants.
systems. It propagates reusable services that are
orchestrated to create scalable applications. Our SoA is
based on the concept of asset administration shells that
realize digital twins, which are digital representations of
production assets with unified interfaces that enable access
to asset services and data. We explain and discuss
realization concepts for digital twins, and illustrate our
experiences with the transfer of the service-based
architecture principle to the automation industry within the
context of selected Industrie 4.0 use cases. We highlight
solution approaches for the efficient realization of lot size 1
production as well as for creating digital twins of production
assets, and discuss levels of Industrie 4.0 maturity.
Keywords – Automation, digitalization, Industrie 4.0, SoA

1. INTRODUCTION
Past industrial revolutions were triggered by the availability
of a technology. They yielded significant changes in Figure 1 – Automation pyramid
production, which resulted in cheaper, mass-produced
products and an overall increase in living standards. After This yielded the automation pyramid (see Figure 1), which
industrialization, electrification, and computerization/IT, the resembles the structure of today’s complex production
current industrial revolution, Industrie 4.0 (I4.0), is the systems. ERP systems at the top manage orders, stock, and
upcoming fourth major change in manufacturing. It has been production plans. MES systems execute production plans
triggered by the ongoing digitalization and addresses the and provide parameters to PLC controllers that connect to
needs of changeable production in an ever faster changing sensors and control actuators. SCADA (supervisory control
world. and data acquisition) systems enable process supervision
across production cells. These systems use different
protocols and proprietary data models. Inter-system

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