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Copyright of International Journal of Professional Business Review (JPBReview) is the property of Open Access Publications LLC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

To address the issues associated with traditional inspection methods for slag slow cooling fields, which rely on manual operations and are characterized by high safety risks, low efficiency, high costs, low accuracy, and harsh environments, an intelligent inspection system for slag slow cooling fields has been developed and applied. This system uses a gimbal infrared thermal imager to capture thermal and visible light images of slag package and cooling water spray. By applying infrared thermal imaging temperature algorithms and AI-based intelligent recognition, the system accurately monitors temperature changes in slag package and the operational status of the spray, automatically identifying anomalies and issuing timely warnings. Since its implementation, the system has demonstrated high stability and precision, enabling staff to address various on-site inspection issues, thereby ensuring production safety and stability. This system offers an efficient and intelligent inspection solution for the metal smelting industry, promoting digital transformation and intelligent upgrades within the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, the growing demand for personalised products is highly challenging for enterprises in terms of productivity and efficiency. At this point, the integration of Industry 4.0 into lean production practices is a very significant development in order to increase companies' productivity and reduce their wastage. Following the emergence of Industry 4.0, the availability of new technologies draws the attention of companies in order to sustain the applicability of lean production practices in business processes. While the lean production approach aims to bring insight into simplicity and plainness by eliminating operational complexity, Industry 4.0 is to incorporate technologies that seek to facilitate the lives of enterprises and people. While Industry 4.0 and its lean applications attract more and more interest in the developing technology, we have found that number of the studies in this field is limited and there is a considerable shortage in the literature. Therefore, this article is one of the few studies that address the lean philosophy, digital factory, and Industry 4.0 application together and systematically review the literature. In the present study, we tried to provide an overview of the integration of lean and Industry 4.0 and the establishment of digital factories, the challenges and barriers experienced therein, and what the future holds for these practices, which we have noticed to lack in the literature. Accordingly, academic studies were reviewed starting from 1990, when lean thinking came to life, and as a result, 29 articles were identified by conducting a systematic literature review between 2018 and 2022 when the popularity of Industry 4.0 and lean practices has increased, and an inference was reached by determining the topics and contents of the articles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in digital factory technologies are offering great potential to innovate higher education, by enabling innovative learning approaches based on virtual laboratories that increase the involvement of students while delivering realistic experiences. This article introduces a framework for the development of virtual learning applications by addressing multidisciplinary requirements. The implementation of the framework can be eased by the use of the proposed virtual learning factory application (VLFA), an open-source solution that takes advantage of virtual reality to support innovative higher-education learning activities in industrial engineering. A complete design and development workflow is described, starting from the identification of the requirements, to the design of software modules and underlying technologies, up to the final implementation. The framework and the VLFA have been tested to implement a serious game related to the design and analysis of manufacturing systems, also collecting the feedback of students and teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current digital transformation in manufacturing has a strong impact on the competencies needed by manufacturing companies. This leads to evolving requirements for digital training in industrial engineering courses. The concept of virtual labs in academic environments can be instrumental in teaching new digital skills through practical experience. This paper aims to examine the requirements and essential factors involved in designing virtual labs, proposing a framework to meet the requirements of virtual lab activities, integrating didactic and research purposes while examining the requirements and essential factors involved in designing virtual labs digital twin as an enabling technology. The framework is the result of the analysis of the technical aspects related to immersive technologies, such as extended reality, together with insights gathered from interviews and pilot testing conducted in workshops involving students, teachers, and lab managers from three institutions implementing virtual labs. The outcomes of this study include the digital model of four manufacturing labs as virtual labs that are openly available for academic purposes. This showcases a commitment towards offering quality and inclusive engineering education through cutting­edge virtual technologies.

The primary objective of this research endeavor was to devise an improved workplace design tailored to the demands of a digital factory environment. With the overarching aim of enhancing efficiency and productivity, a comprehensive proposal was formulated to improve layout configurations within the designated enterprise. The key focus lies in minimizing material transit across individual workstations, thereby mitigating potential bottlenecks and streamlining operations. Employing a structured workplace research framework, this study delved into material flow analysis techniques, augmented by the utilization of visTABLE software. While visTABLE served solely to visualize the work environment effectively, it played a crucial role in validating proposed solutions. Notably, the investigation yielded a discernible reduction in beam production time, marking a significant improvement of 10 min. These findings underscored the efficacy of the proposed solutions in addressing specific operational challenges faced by the company. Furthermore, this study facilitated a deeper understanding and visualization of the processes intrinsic to the digital factory environment. Elucidating workflow procedures at the workplace enabled stakeholders to identify areas for further improvement and refinement. In doing so, the research contributed to the overall efficiency and effectiveness of operations within the digital factory, paving the way for continued improvement and innovation in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cyber Security & Data Governance is the property of Editorial Office of Information Technology & Network Security and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article explores the transformative potential of learning factories in mechatronic systems development. Learning factories offer a dynamic, collaborative environment that bridges the gap between academia and industry, creating a mutually beneficial ecosystem. The LEONARDO project aims to develop innovative teaching methods, materials and tools for human-centric industrial engineering and management education leveraging on an industry 5.0 replica of a brewing system. Brewing as a process can be considered as highly complex, while brewing as a procedure serves as a ‘sexy vehicle’ for appealing student’s interest in industry 5.0 applications and human-centric production. The brewing process is and will increasingly be more automated and highly supervised. For the latter, modern implementations of sensors such as electronic nose, electronic tongue, and infrared spectroscopy are required to be installed on the brewing equipment. To efficiently use the sensor outputs, the produced signals need to be merged locally and processed adequately, researched and investigated deeply by the authors up-front with the results to be summarized. Furthermore, to enable the physical bridging of various involved institutions across Europe, connecting the relevant sites virtually presents another technological challenge. Adequate IoT equipment needs to be selected and included in the whole setup as well. Furthermore, an emphasis needs to be made on the human-centric approach, as well as data visualization. Each of the aforementioned pieces of technology need a thorough investigation along with a decent focus in integrating the puzzle pieces into the big picture which is the brewing plant. In this paper we describe the interaction along with the system integration strategies of the listed fields to enable a future proof industry 5.0 ready brewing plant, focusing on the human-centric approach demanded in the industry5.0 feature description. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current digital transformation in manufacturing has a strong impact on the competencies needed by manufacturing companies. This leads to evolving requirements for digital training in industrial engineering courses. The concept of virtual labs in academic environments can be instrumental in teaching new digital skills through practical experience. This paper aims to examine the requirements and essential factors involved in designing virtual labs, proposing a framework to meet the requirements of virtual lab activities, integrating didactic and research purposes while examining the requirements and essential factors involved in designing virtual labs digital twin as an enabling technology. The framework is the result of the analysis of the technical aspects related to immersive technologies, such as extended reality, together with insights gathered from interviews and pilot testing conducted in workshops involving students, teachers, and lab managers from three institutions implementing virtual labs. The outcomes of this study include the digital model of four manufacturing labs as virtual labs that are openly available for academic purposes. This showcases a commitment towards offering quality and inclusive engineering education through cuttingedge virtual technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of innovative development allows enterprises to introduce new approaches in pursuit of competitive advantage and sustainable development. The concept of the digital factory encompasses the digitization of the whole product life cycle and the development of digital models of the products and production processes so as to improve the enterprise's global competitiveness. The introduction of this concept at enterprises is a lengthy process and must be completed in stages. In the present research, key elements in the concept of a smart factory are identified, and the basic stages in its introduction are proposed. This schema may be adapted to the specific conditions and needs of the enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Automobile Technology & Material is the property of Automobile Technology & Material Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As the best integration point to integrate information technology and manufacturing technology, the digital factory is the basis for the intelligent transformation of manufacturing companies. This article will discuss how to build it and discuss the digital world. When companies develop, integrate, share, apply and update different knowledge, create more added value and benefits, and make significant contributions to the sustainable development of knowledge management companies, they pay more and more attention to improving their own competitiveness. Therefore, this article proposes a method to improve knowledge management based on the actual situation of the enterprise, and proposes a strategy for recent development. In the knowledge management applications of the digital factory, the high-speed transmission and processing of data becomes crucial. But the traditional network technology has been unable to meet the increasing demand for data. This paper explores the potential application and advantages of optical network transmission based on 5G network in the application of knowledge management in digital factory, studies the optical network transmission technology based on 5G network, and discusses its feasibility and advantages in the application of knowledge management in digital factory. The study found that the optical network transmission technology based on 5G network can greatly improve the data transmission speed and bandwidth, and meet the needs of digital factories for efficient data transmission. Optical network transmission technology also has the advantages of low latency, high reliability and low energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of the article is to understand how research and practices related to the use of VR in production processes are developing. As well as providing information on the diversity of VR applications in industry. Design/methodology/approach: The bibliometric analysis is based on data from the Scopus database and Web of Science, focused on research and scientific publications related to the use of VR in the context of manufacturing processes. The subject scope of the article includes identifying, among other things, the dominant authors and organizations in the analyzed topic. Analysis of keywords and visualization of their connections using VOSviewer software, and identification of the resulting topic clusters. In addition, identification of research trends and areas for further work. Findings: The bibliometric analysis conducted reveals several research trends and research areas related to the use of virtual reality technology in the manufacturing industry. The research includes, but is not limited to, the exploration of innovative teaching and training delivery methods and the impact of VR on manufacturing processes. In addition, they include the development of digital manufacturing, the creation of smart factories in line with the concept of Industry 4.0. The trends reflect the drive to use VR as a tool for optimization, achieving industrial sustainability goals and shaping the future of manufacturing. Research limitations/implications: Limitations are due to the very nature of bibliometric research and the use of two databases for publication selection (Scopus, Web of Science). Originality/value: The value of the article lies in providing information that can be useful to practitioners and researchers interested in this topic. The work identifies and discusses specific research areas and trends related to the use of VR in the manufacturing industry. Includes analysis of new approaches and innovative methods that are emerging in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An external disruptor to a manufacturing process (e.g., a supply chain failure, or a cyber‐attack) can affect more than a factory's output; it can have wider societal concerns, raising the issue of industrial resilience at different levels. In this work, manufacturing resilience is revisited, reviewing the applicability of the resilience concept to the industrial domain, particularly the smart factories enabled by newer digital technologies. The meaning of resilience within manufacturing is shown to be composed of several factors that operate at three levels (macro, meso, and micro). The factors have been united from a variety of sources to unify the traits within manufacturing resilience. Furthermore, a summary of the advanced digital technologies that can aid (or detract) from resilience is discussed, along with some of their challenges around digital complexity, legacy equipment support, high‐performance wireless communications, and cybersecurity. Although it is seen that digital manufacturing systems can aid resilience within the industrial sector and contribute to wider societal goals, the biggest impact is likely to be at the lowest (micro) level. Opportunities exist to quantify resilience factors and their use within manufacturing systems support software, and how to influence the resilience requirements of the wider stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this research endeavor was to devise an improved workplace design tailored to the demands of a digital factory environment. With the overarching aim of enhancing efficiency and productivity, a comprehensive proposal was formulated to improve layout configurations within the designated enterprise. The key focus lies in minimizing material transit across individual workstations, thereby mitigating potential bottlenecks and streamlining operations. Employing a structured workplace research framework, this study delved into material flow analysis techniques, augmented by the utilization of visTABLE software. While visTABLE served solely to visualize the work environment effectively, it played a crucial role in validating proposed solutions. Notably, the investigation yielded a discernible reduction in beam production time, marking a significant improvement of 10 min. These findings underscored the efficacy of the proposed solutions in addressing specific operational challenges faced by the company. Furthermore, this study facilitated a deeper understanding and visualization of the processes intrinsic to the digital factory environment. Elucidating workflow procedures at the workplace enabled stakeholders to identify areas for further improvement and refinement. In doing so, the research contributed to the overall efficiency and effectiveness of operations within the digital factory, paving the way for continued improvement and innovation in the field.

Copyright of Machine Tool & Hydraulics is the property of Guangzhou Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (GMERI) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In today's industry, the fourth industrial revolution is underway, characterized by the integration of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and big data. One of the key pillars of this revolution is the technology of digital twin, which is rapidly gaining importance in various industries. However, the concept of digital twins is often misunderstood or misused as a buzzword, leading to confusion in its definition and applications. This observation inspired the authors of this paper to create their own demonstration applications that allow the control of both the real and virtual systems through automatic two-way communication and mutual influence in context of digital twins. The paper aims to demonstrate the use of digital twin technology aimed at discrete manufacturing events in two case studies. In order to create the digital twins for these case studies, the authors used technologies as Unity, Game4Automation, Siemens TIA portal, and Fishertechnik models. The first case study involves the creation of a digital twin for a production line model, while the second case study involves the virtual extension of a warehouse stacker using a digital twin. These case studies will form the basis for the creation of pilot courses for Industry 4.0 education and can be further modified for the development of Industry 4.0 educational materials and technical practice. In conclusion, selected technologies are affordable, which makes the presented methodologies and educational studies accessible to a wide range of researchers and solution developers tackling the issue of digital twins, with a focus on discrete manufacturing events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of every production is an optimally set and stable production process with the lowest possible costs. Such settings can only be achieved through many years of experience or very specific research, which focuses on several critical factors. An example of such factors can be the size and use of available space or the location of the production line and the logistical location of individual production sites, which is individual for each production process. Specific research can be carried out, for example, by means of the TX Plant simulation application, which was used in the present article for the production process of making fiber from pellets. The output of this research is the effective use of the so-called "Digital factory" to make the process in the already created conditions more efficient. This was achieved by the TX Plant simulation application, resulting in a reduced production time and increasing overall productivity. An intuitive interaction with factory equipment is possible with this approach, which allows users to immerse themselves in the virtual factory environment. As a result, a layout's efficiency of surface use, flow of martial, and ergonomics can be assessed in real time. This paper aims to demonstrate how virtual reality (VR) can be used to simulate a digital factory to aid in decision making and enhance factory efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, in order to help improve the information capacity of modern factories, a full connection digital factory for industrial Internet identity resolution is built, and digital technology is used to perform the digital interconnection of the production equipment. The full connection digital factory is an advanced factory with extensive connection of production units, deep integration of IT–OT, full release of data value, and improvement of the total factor productivity. This is enabled by the full integration and use of the new generation technologies represented by 5G, edge computing, and identity resolution to reach new factory level, workshop level, and production line level production scenarios. Based on the integration of infrastructure, information technology, and platform service resources, a full connection digital factory architecture is constructed. The fusion application of 5G, edge computing, and mark resolution technology in transformer discrete manufacturing digital plant is then discussed. The challenges and development trends are summarized. Finally, it is demonstrated that the full connection digital factory of identity resolution is a possible future development direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The numerous hierarchical architectures of 2D assemblies endow them with a new dimension to realize novel properties. From theoretical perspective, freedoms stem from in‐plane and out‐plane mechanical properties of 2D materials separately, which makes 2D materials embrace more than one "persistence length" giving rise to the diverse morphologies. However, the understanding of 3D architecture formation in 2D assemblies is still in its infancy. In fact, there is even no theoretical classification or reference to help clarify structural difference among numerous experimental obtained 2D assemblies. Based on the theoretical model composed by 2D sheets and Lennard‐Jones liquids, solution concentration dependence of 2D materials conformation is systematically studied, and a ln K behavior is uncovered that can realize the theoretical conformation prediction of 2D materials. More importantly, the digital production line (solution processing procedure) is set up toward establishing the 2D assemblies' digital factory. The obtained structures may provide a reference to 2D assemblies, which benefits the understanding of the structural difference among different experiments and even help to guide the experimental design of 2D assemblies with targeted architectures and properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen production by the electrolysis of water using renewable energy is a key component of the energy transition toward carbon dioxide emission reduction. Therefore, electrolyzers are in increased demand and have to meet higher technical requirements. The most important component of an electrolyzer is the type of cell. The proton-exchange membrane (PEM) cell is the one that offers the most promise. Cell components and their materials are subject to volatile development conditions. In particular, various production technologies come to mind for producing assembled cells the so-called membrane electrode assembly (MEA). Currently, only small quantities are produced. To meet demand, production must be scaled up quickly. Nevertheless, high requirements are placed on the quality of the cells, since high-priced raw materials are used for PEM cells. Therefore, this paper presents a data-driven approach to assessing the appropriate production technology. First, general and specific requirements of a cell production scale-up are derived. Later, characteristics of suitable cell production technologies are extracted. By using a digital factory model, suitable for shop floor data, the basis for the conception and validation of possible production concepts is laid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advancing climate change requires a shift from conventional energy sources to renewable ones, which is accompanied by the indispensability of an efficient and sustainable storage of electrical energy. The production of lithium-ion battery cells comprises an enormous complexity, as it consists of several interlinked process steps, each with different quality requirements for the (intermediate) products and the processes itself. This complexity means that a supposedly insignificant process parameter can lead to errors and deviations in the manufactured products via complex cause-effect relationships, that are not fully known. The missing knowledge of the processes and inter-process interdependencies lead to difficulties in the setup of a suitable quality assurance in battery cell production to reduce scrap rates. Beside these potentials in planning and optimizing the process chain of the battery cell factory of tomorrow are impeded. We developed a method to build up a relevant knowledge base on cause-effect relationships for battery cell production. Expert knowledge based on experience and intuition has been collected and quantitative cause-effect relationships are established. This knowledge is used to set up the initial data acquisition, ensuring relevant data being available for analysis. Afterwards, the data analysis, that validates and extends this expert knowledge, is defined. This approach is applied to real-world use-cases including machinery and laboratory equipment in battery cell production. The electrode production is selected as the basis for validation. The found inter-relationships either validate the qualitative expert knowledge, contradict this prior knowledge or else add new insights about the battery cell electrode production process that have not been considered in the qualitative expert knowledge. Methods used include correlations and a predictive power score for non-linear interdependencies. The cause-effect relationships are constantly updated by automatically analyzing the production data of the digital factory. These identified and validated cause-effect relationships allow the planning of efficient and sustainable battery cell production and data-based process chain optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The numerous hierarchical architectures of 2D assemblies endow them with a new dimension to realize novel properties. From theoretical perspective, freedoms stem from in‐plane and out‐plane mechanical properties of 2D materials separately, which makes 2D materials embrace more than one “persistence length” giving rise to the diverse morphologies. However, the understanding of 3D architecture formation in 2D assemblies is still in its infancy. In fact, there is even no theoretical classification or reference to help clarify structural difference among numerous experimental obtained 2D assemblies. Based on the theoretical model composed by 2D sheets and Lennard‐Jones liquids, solution concentration dependence of 2D materials conformation is systematically studied, and a ln K behavior is uncovered that can realize the theoretical conformation prediction of 2D materials. More importantly, the digital production line (solution processing procedure) is set up toward establishing the 2D assemblies’ digital factory. The obtained structures may provide a reference to 2D assemblies, which benefits the understanding of the structural difference among different experiments and even help to guide the experimental design of 2D assemblies with targeted architectures and properties.

The current trend in industry is the digitalisation of production processes using modern information and communication technologies, a trend that falls under the fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0. Applications that link the world of information technologies (IT) and operational technologies (OT) are in particular demand. On the basis of information from practice, it can be stated that there is a shortage of specialists in the labour market for the interconnection of PLCs with information and communication technologies (cloud, web, mobile applications, etc.) in Slovakia and neighbouring countries. However, this problem is beginning to affect other countries in Europe as well. The main objective of the work was to prepare case studies suitable for educational purposes, which would address the modelling and control of a virtual discrete-event system using a PLC program and its subsequent interfacing to a cloud application. Within the scope of the work, three case studies were prepared to demonstrate the control of discrete-event system using different programming systems and their communication with the developed cloud applications. These applications are to be used for data monitoring and emergency intervention of the discrete-event system. The characteristics of the prepared case studies, which combine operational and informational technologies, predestines them for use in the sphere of education of engineers for digitalisation of production processes. They can also be helpful in research on the creation of digital twins, which represent a type of symmetry between real and virtual systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today’s industry, the fourth industrial revolution is underway, characterized by the integration of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and big data. One of the key pillars of this revolution is the technology of digital twin, which is rapidly gaining importance in various industries. However, the concept of digital twins is often misunderstood or misused as a buzzword, leading to confusion in its definition and applications. This observation inspired the authors of this paper to create their own demonstration applications that allow the control of both the real and virtual systems through automatic two-way communication and mutual influence in context of digital twins. The paper aims to demonstrate the use of digital twin technology aimed at discrete manufacturing events in two case studies. In order to create the digital twins for these case studies, the authors used technologies as Unity, Game4Automation, Siemens TIA portal, and Fishertechnik models. The first case study involves the creation of a digital twin for a production line model, while the second case study involves the virtual extension of a warehouse stacker using a digital twin. These case studies will form the basis for the creation of pilot courses for Industry 4.0 education and can be further modified for the development of Industry 4.0 educational materials and technical practice. In conclusion, selected technologies are affordable, which makes the presented methodologies and educational studies accessible to a wide range of researchers and solution developers tackling the issue of digital twins, with a focus on discrete manufacturing events.

In this paper, in order to help improve the information capacity of modern factories, a full connection digital factory for industrial Internet identity resolution is built, and digital technology is used to perform the digital interconnection of the production equipment. The full connection digital factory is an advanced factory with extensive connection of production units, deep integration of IT–OT, full release of data value, and improvement of the total factor productivity. This is enabled by the full integration and use of the new generation technologies represented by 5G, edge computing, and identity resolution to reach new factory level, workshop level, and production line level production scenarios. Based on the integration of infrastructure, information technology, and platform service resources, a full connection digital factory architecture is constructed. The fusion application of 5G, edge computing, and mark resolution technology in transformer discrete manufacturing digital plant is then discussed. The challenges and development trends are summarized. Finally, it is demonstrated that the full connection digital factory of identity resolution is a possible future development direction.