Abstract
In this work, an understanding of Industry 4.0 is developed using automotive manufacturing as a reference. An attempt is made to discretize the concept of I4.0 into its foundational elements and study how their interaction is creating the factory of the future. The automotive manufacturing industry is used an example to study the current industrial manufacturing scenario as it represents an industry which is enthusiastically adopting this new concept to itsadvantage. The automotive manufacturing ‘Weld Shop’ is specifically studied for the purpose of this work. The current scenario of ‘Weld Shop’ is presented, which is then compared with the same facility in factory of the future. The comparison is illustrated using flow of operations, insightful and illustrative models of the proposed systems.
Keywords: Industry 4.0 (I4.0), automotive manufacturing ‘weld shop’, in-line correction, predictive and prescriptive maintenance, connectivity