Internet of Things

[AdonMcQuinn]

Greetings!

Has anyone used Simio towards the "Internet of Things?" If so, I would love to hear your methodology. I am fascinated by the topic and looking to explore further.

Thank you!

Dan

[dsturrock]

There are lots of early adopters doing this (or starting to do it) because Simio is ideally suited for SmartFactory operations. Here's a short summary from a WSC presentation.

 

The Smart Factory is referred to as the 4th industrial revolution:

--Mechanization and power to reduce reliance on humans.

--Mass production, assembly lines, and electricity to improve production efficiency.

--Computers and automation to control individual machines and help plan production.

--Cyber-physical systems where:

----components are fully connected,

----monitored, and interfaced to a virtual model of the system

----predict and improve the performance of the system.

The Industry 4.0 initiative is driven by four key design principles.

--Interoperability: machines, devices, sensors, and people connect and communicate with each other via the Internet of Things (IoT).

--Information transparency: real time sensors connected to the virtual factory model provides system-wide visibility of the factory status.

--Decision support systems solve urgent problems on short notice (e.g. rescheduling after a machine breakdown).

--Decentralized decisions: System components perform many tasks as autonomously (e.g. machines that self-diagnose problems and request repair.

The interconnected components of the Smart Factory automatically record detailed performance data that can be stored and analyzed to fine tune and improve the system performance. Data analytics can be applied to this information to discover and communicate meaningful data patterns and trends. Although data analytics applied to past data is useful, the real power comes from connecting the real-time component data to the virtual model of the factory. The model can then be used to project forward in time and reveal and address problems and issues in the production plan before they occur in the real system.