Production processes modelling within digital product manufacturing in the context of Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 aims to establish highly flexible production, enabling effective and efficient mass customisation of products. Modelling techniques and simulation of production processes are among the core techniques of the manufacturing industry that facilitate flexibility and automation of a shop floor in the era of Industry 4.0. In this paper, we present an approach to support production process modelling and process model management. The approach is based on Model-Driven (MD) principles and comprises a Domain-Specific Modelling Language (DSML) named Multi-Level Production Process Modelling Language (MultiProLan). MultiProLan uses a set of concepts to specify production process models suitable for automatic instruction generation and execution of the instructions in a simulation or on a shop floor. By using MultiProLan, process designers may create process models independent of the specific production system. Such process models can either be automatically enriched by matching and scheduling algorithms or manually enriched by a process designer via MultiProLan’s modelling tool. In this paper, we also present an application of our approach in the assembly industry to showcase its dynamic resource management, generation of production documentation, error handling and process monitoring.