Manufacturing logistics

Production logistics is undergoing major changes due to the challenges of automation, digitalisation and Industry 4.0. The product range of companies is becoming increasingly individualized down to batch size 1 and product life cycles are also getting shorter. New production techniques such as rapid prototyping or additive laser production are already being used in the intelligent factory. Networked production is making intralogistics requirements ever more complex. In order to plan all these processes and to manage them without errors, companies rely on supply chain management systems. As value and supply chains increasingly develop into complex networks, challenges in planning and control can only be met with digitalisation.

Now that systems have passed through the automation and digitization phase, the next step is to network them through Industry 4.0 and exchange data. Tailor-made individual manufacturing in the age of Industry 4.0 affects both production and distribution logistics. During production, special materials and custom-built parts must be provided Just-In-Time (JIT), which makes intralogistics processes and data processing much more complex. As already mentioned, hardly any articles are maintained in stock for make-to-order production.

Many individual transactions are created, whereby many different parts have to be supplied to a number of production machines at certain times. This means that storage and materials handling technology must be sufficiently flexible and automated. Supplying materials by lift truck is rather unprofitable in this scenario. It is far easier to supply materials to production facilities with the help of warehouse shuttle systems that are fed by driverless transport vehicles (AGV). In customised mass production, components must be clearly marked along the entire value-added chain and be identifiable, for example, via RFID tags on the workpiece. Along the entire supply chain, data must be exchanged in real time between individual workstations and monitoring system. The demand for components in production can change very quickly in scenarios working with batch size 1, and logistic processes must be able to adapt immediately. For this purpose, systems must be able to communicate with each other, with data being exchanged via the "Internet of Things".

Many customers expect to choose between a wide range of product variations supplied at the same price and with same delivery times. This can only be achieved with customised small and micro production quantities. The answer to this challenge is Agile Manufacturing (Agile manufacturing cells) that allows to manufacture components and variations in any batch size down to batch size 1.