With the rapid success of the digital enterprises in the 21st Century, industrial manufacturing is expected to be approaching the fourth industrial revolution, coined Industry 4.0 (I4.0). The instrumental technology that will drive this evolution is the integration of the physical and digital factory into one cyber physical system. There is consensus among academics and industry alike that there will be an integral paradigm shift in how offerings will be developed and manufactured. While there is much confidence that the future factory will have unprecedented capabilities to satisfy complex customer demands, there is little agreement on how individual organisations can utilise these trends. This paper presents a literature review identifying reoccurring themes and trends of I4.0 and their expected effect on future manufacturing. Central characteristics, challenges and opportunities are identified and discussed. The findings can provide support in developing actionable strategies for industry to direct I4.0 endeavours.

This paper introduces a method to perform systematic diagnosis of function integrity. The proposed method advances the Integrated Function Modelling framework to extend its application to risk identification and documentation tasks. By analyzing the system model of interdisciplinary designs, this method guides the designer to explore function vulnerability by systematic decoupling of inherent design entities. Thereby it provides unique opportunities for failure mode identification in complex, interdisciplinary systems. The motivation for this method is ensuring system function integrity.

In seeking to retrofit decade old production systems, there is often the need to re-analyse many facets of the system as previous assessments and past assumptions must be validated or amended. The following paper presents the system modelling and analysis of an industrial cigarette filter maker. The matrix based Integrated Function Modelling (IFM) Framework was applied to model six design entities to create a comprehensive system understanding. The derived system model was subsequently analysed using the Function Integrity Diagnosis and Documentation (FIDD) method to identify risk to system function. Through the unique use-case discussed in this paper, new insights for improvement of the modelling approach and analysis method are identified. This paper concludes with actionable recommendations for improved application of the IFM Framework and FIDD method.

Comparing the propensity for risk in concepts with little commonality, such as different working principles, different number of functions and components, is challenging to achieve in a systematic and traceable manner. This paper builds on the Function Integrity Diagnosis and Documentation method to introduce a Function Integrity indicator as a means to quantitatively compare dissimilar design concepts based on risk assessment. The proposed indicator is intended to support designers converge on a suitable design concept based on considerations of risk to concept functions.

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