Digital Twin: An Added Value for Digital CONWIP in the Context of Industry 4.0

Abstract

Despite technological progress and a large amount of research on Industry 4.0, digital transformation remains a complex process that most manufacturers are hesitant to invest in. Interest in digital Kanban, for example, remains low compared with traditional Kanban, which is widely used. This applies to the other card-based production control systems, including CONstant Work-In-Process (CONWIP), which is the focus of this paper. In an industrial context where digitization and Industry 4.0 are the main trends, one may wonder why traditional CONWIP is preferred to digital CONWIP. Following a praxeological approach (i.e., study of practice and instrumentation), this article explores the strengths and weaknesses of the CONWIP practice, in both its paper and electronic versions, while taking into account the human dimension. The aim is to motivate potential CONWIP users to implement it in its digital mode and to show them how a Digital Twin-based solution can overcome the managerial problems that arise with digitization while enabling improved performance. As an illustration, experience feedback from several companies using Digital Twin with CONWIP is provided.

An Immersive Digital Twin Applied to a Manufacturing Execution System for the Monitoring and Control of Industry 4.0 Processes

“…This drives digital transformation, allowing greater agility and flexibility of production because it can connect the needs of consumers with the industry through automation systems linked to the planning level and enterprise resource planning (ERP) [6]. In addition, thanks to the ability to work with large amounts of data, using sensors and wireless technologies of connected devices in real-time offers promising digitized solutions in various fields of industry, including management, planning, and the control of production [7], allowing manufacturers to save time, increase productivity, reduce waste and costs. This change in the industry involves not only the digitization of processes but also the creation of smart factories, incorporating information and communication technologies (ICT) for the evolution of the supply chain and the production line [8].…”