Potentials of a digital Industry 4.0 factory

Planning a new factory is a major challenge, especially due to the complexity of the task at hand. Together with our partner Institute WZL – Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering of RWTH Aachen University we supported Beiersdorf AG in the planning of a new Industry 4.0 factory for aerosol production. In this context, the potential of digitization for the new factory was also examined in order to establish a sustainable infrastructure from the start. The decisive factors in the evaluation were not only technical and financial feasibility but also compliance with the general corporate strategy.

Industry 4.0 factory with state-of-the-art technology and infrastructure

With the fundamental decision to implement the planned plant made in 2019, the way was clear for the further design of the production concept. The aim was to create an Industry 4.0 factory with state-of-the-art technology and infrastructure in order to sustainably strengthen Germany’s innovative capability as a business location. Against the backdrop of steadily advancing digitalization and a broad spectrum of available modern Industry 4.0 solutions, the task was to identify those use cases that offered Beiersdorf AG technological, economic, and ecological added value.

Results also transferable to other plants thanks to a standardized calculation tool

The evaluation of Industry 4.0 solutions has revealed not only the potentials but also the limits of digitization for the new Industry 4.0 factory. An important basis for decision-making was created for the further planning of the factory and, in particular, its infrastructure. A standardized calculation structure was used to evaluate the use cases. The result is a tool that enables ongoing evaluation of the use cases by simply adjusting the data and assumptions. As a result, a transfer of the project results to other production sites can be carried out by Beiersdorf AG itself with little effort.

Are you also interested in an Industry 4.0 use case assessment? Then contact us and develop solutions for the production management of tomorrow with us.

Contact

Dr. Seth Schmitz
Head of Industry Projects
Phone: +49 241 80 27387
Mail: s.schmitz@gpmc-aachen.de

Tim Janke, M.Sc. RWTH
Head of Business and Software Development
Phone: +49 175 4300711
Mail: t.janke@gpmc-aachen.de