Supporting Digital Production, Product Lifecycle and Supply Chain Management in Industry 4.0 by the Arrowhead Framework – a Survey

Abstract

While Industry 4.0 targets are theoretically set from various aspects, the approaches for covering some of its key areas are heterogeneous. The main pillars for Productive4.0 – a European research initiative with the industrial drive – are Digital Production, Product Lifecycle Management and Supply Chain Management. These are also key areas for Industry 4.0, and so far handled with heterogeneous approaches, toolsets – and success, indeed.This paper has two aims. First, to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art concepts regarding these three areas, filtered through the actual industrial requirements. Second, to survey the Arrowhead Framework concerning these areas, and suggest a homogeneous approach that can support not only the main vision of these three domains but the actual design-time and operational-time tasks needed to make the vision of Industry 4.0 reality.