Year: 2022
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Constant evolution in the global manufacturing resulting from various forces like innovation, changing demands, competition, and regulations is forcing manufacturing enterprises towards more digital and smarter operations to stay competitive in their respective markets.This evolution of manufacturing towards digitalisation led to a new paradigm in the last decade, which has been called the "fourth industrial revolution" or "Industry 4.0".Yet, it is not a trivial matter for manufacturing organisations to deal with the accelerating frequency of radical changes by means of new strategies, methods, and technologies.Evolving dynamic forces have immense impacts on the digital transformation of manufacturing operations as well as the priorities of scholarly works.In its early stages, the endeavour for digitalisation of manufacturing concentrated on new technologies and their utilisation for transparency by the enhanced availability of data.However, even some of the best manufacturing companies are still struggling to leverage their competencies or develop new competencies by capturing the highest benefits from digitalisation due to challenges that have emerged within the context of complex economic, socio-political, and technological systems.Nowadays, it is more apparent and easier to comprehend the relation between evolving market dynamics and their reciprocal consequences on products, processes, and manufacturing systems.Accordingly, manufacturing organisations must handle the initiation of change as well as its propagation, which triggers a multitude of unpredictable and complex modifications in production.This challenge is characterised as the concurrent/coordinated evolution of products, processes, and systems, in other words, "co-evolution" in scholarly works.Within the application domain, we capitalise on both descriptive (scientific) and prescriptive (technical) knowledge by aiming to contribute both the artefacts (concepts, methods, architectures) and theories.In other words, building novel artefacts and their evaluation to solve real-world problems and to explore the practical usefulness of a solution to deal with the theory and practice are the primary purposes.Therefore, the VF research presented in this thesis follows the methods, guidelines, and frameworks of design science research (DSR) in information systems (IS) that examine the generation of the artefacts required to carry out design, implementation, use and investigation of practical relevance and the pragmatic validity of a digital solution.The main empirical outcomes of the VF research incorporate overall three phases and each phase capitalises on scholarly articles.Moreover, the subsequent conduct of the study required more comprehensive and inclusive interpretations of the empirical knowledge discovered during the research, as well as a consequential extension of the concept to enterprise-level operations.Therefore, although it was not the part of the initial research plan, Paper 4 is formed to reflect on the conceptual and theoretical foundations of the DT-based VF as well as its extension to a virtual enterprise.Correspondingly, the main research questions consecutively addressed during each journal article of the study can be listed as follows: Research Question 1.How can a VF concept that integrates the product, process, system data, as well as state-of-the-art technologies be designed and developed for an industrial case?Research Question 2.Can DT-based VF support manufacturing organisations to handle the co-evolution of product, process, and system models by enabling concurrent engineering and shorter time-to-market? IX Research Question 3. How can DT-based VF solutions support the new product introduction process by enabling virtual prototyping? Research Question 4.What are the conceptual and theoretical foundations of the DT-based VF concept that can support the extension of the concept to the enterprise level for handling co-evolution?The thesis on hand is the final effort to frame the three-year-long research aiming to establish a systemic design and development approach for DT-based VF, employing a collaborative virtual reality capability that can integrate product, process, and system models to support the manufacturing enterprises for handling co-evolution problems during their adaptation to evolving environments.Thus, with this final effort, this thesis is aiming to: Establish comprehensive and methodical foundations for the empirical, conceptual, and philosophical discussions supporting the previously discovered and disseminated knowledge on DT-based VF employing a collaborative virtual reality capability that can integrate product, process, and system models.Therefore, the essential knowledge contribution of the VF research to the literature and application domain can be summarised as follows:• Introducing a novel DT-based VF concept including design and development models based on a real-life manufacturing case • Presenting knowledge on the practical implications and industrial value of DT-based VF • Determining guidelines for the actual utilisation of technologies and methodologies for simultaneous design, analysis, modelling and simulation of manufacturing operations • Discovering knowledge regarding enablers and barriers for designing, developing, and utilising DT-based VF for industrial purposes • Elaborating on conceptual and theoretical foundations for DT-based VF.Thus, the proposed concept solution shows signs of significant value in the application domain and is employed by the industrial stakeholder of this research project, and developments are in the course of significant progress while these lines are drawn up.Therefore, the outcome of this study provides valuable prescriptive and descriptive knowledge for both researchers and practitioners. VIRTUAL FACTORY X DANSK RESUMEKonstant udvikling i den globale produktionsindustri som følge af forskellige kræfter såsom innovation, skiftende efterspørgsel, konkurrence og nye reguleringer tvinger producenter til at kue til mere digitale og smarte løsninger, såfremt de vil forblive konkurrencedygtige i deres respektive markeder.Denne digitalisering af produktion har ledt til et paradigmeskift i det sidste årti, som er blevet døbt "den fjerde industrielle revolution" eller "Industry 4.0".Det er dog ikke en triviel sag for producenter at håndtere den hyppige og radikale udvikling via nye strategier, metoder og teknologier.Udvikling af dynamiske kræfter har enorm indflydelse på den digitale transformation af produktionsløsninger såvel som prioriteten på videnskabelige værker.I de tidlige stadier var bestræbelserne på digitalisering af produktion koncentreret på nye teknologier og deres anvendelse i gennemsigtighed via øget tilgængelighed af data.Nogle af de bedste produktionsvirksomheder kæmper dog stadig for at udnytte deres kompetencer eller udvikle nye kompetencer, ved ikke at formå at fange de største fordele ved digitalisering pga.udfordringer, der er opstået inden for rammerne af komplekse økonomiske, socialpolitiske og teknologiske systemer.Nu om dage, er det lettere at forstå relationerne mellem udviklende markedsdynamik og dets reciprokale konsekvenser på produkter, processer og produktionssystemer.I overensstemmelse hermed skal producenter håndtere forandring såvel som dets udbredning, hvilket bevirker et væld af uforudsigelige og komplekse modifikationer i produktionen.Denne udfordring er karakteriseret som den samtidige/koordinerede udvikling af produkter, processer og systemer, med andre ord, "co-evolution" i videnskabelige værker.Den Virtuelle Fabrik (VF), som en integreret simulationsmodel af fabrikker, inklusiv deres delsystemer, muliggør data integration på tværs af produktionsværdikæden samt integreret brug af teknologier og metoder.Derfor er VF anerkendt af forskere som en værdifuld og effektiv løsning til at håndtere co-evolutionsparadigmet. Der er dog stadig betydelige huller i kendskabet til VF, såvel som empiriske udfordringer i at anvende VF konceptet, ift.dets design og udvikling.De seneste fremskridt i teknologien inden for domæner såsom digital twins (DTs), modellering og simulering (M&S) og virtual reality (VR) indikerer især potentialet for omfattende værdi i industrien.Ydermere, den integrerede brug af disse teknologier muliggør inkrementelt potentiale og værdi for transformationen af teknologierne til smarte produktionssystemer.Ikke desto mindre er anvendelsen og integreringen af disse teknologier, såvel som evalueringen i faktiske produktionscases, til at håndtere coevolution kritisk, men fraværende.Formålet med VF-forskningen er derfor at adressere disse huller i viden og udfordringer ved at designe og udvikle artefakter og rammer sammen med empiriske evalueringer af designede artefakter i industrielle cases.XI VF-forskningsarbejdet, præsenteret i denne afhandling, er det endelige resultat af et tre år langt ph.d.-studie udført som en del af et større forskningsprojekt kaldet Smart Factories.Forskningsprojektet er udviklet i samarbejde med forskellige industrielle og akademiske interessenter i Danmark og har inkorporeret adskillige videnskabelige værker.Derfor har Virtual Factory projektet, som ét af disse videnskabelige værker, sigtet efter at opnå både industriel og akademisk relevans ved at opnå følgende mål: 1) Design og udvikl en VF-konceptløsning baseret på en virkelig produktionscase som kan anvende state-of-the-art teknologier, herunder digital twins, og som integrerer produkt, proces og produktionssystemmodeller. 2) Afdække retningslinjerne for den aktuelle anvendelse af teknologier og metoder for samtidigt design, analyse, modellering og simulering af produkt og fabriksmodeller.3) Afdække aktivatorerne og barriererne i designet, udviklingen og implementeringen af VF i industrielt sammenhæng.4) Afdække og evaluere den industrielle værdi af VF.Inden for applikationsdomænet udnytter vi både deskriptiv (videnskabelig) og foreskrivende (tek
Author: Emre Yildiz
Language: English
Subfield: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4367182764