Optimization of Wöhler Brush Tech GmbH’s Service Process by Integrating Lifecycle Data of Customer Systems into Digital Twins for Industry 4.0 (DigiBrush)
Wöhler Brush Tech GmbH builds custom machines for the production of technical brushes and for sheet metal deburring. The technical service and maintenance of these systems pose a challenge due to the current low level of digital connectivity of the machines. The goal of DigiBrush is to digitalize and optimize the service process for customers, both technically and process-wise: Machines and IT systems are integrated using OPC UA and Digital Twins for Industry 4.0.
Wöhler Brush Tech GmbH’s (WBT) medium-term vision is for machines in use at their customers’ sites to report problems early and automatically. Based on reliable error analysis, an automatic or employee-reviewed and approved spare part order can then be triggered, for example. WBT and Fraunhofer IOSB-INA are jointly developing this innovative, novel service concept within the framework of the it’s OWL transfer pilot DigiBrush.
Asset Administration Shell
To efficiently execute service orders for custom machines in the future, these machines need to be integrated. In line with developments in and around the Industry 4.0 platform, the project partners are focusing on implementing the Digital Twin for Industry 4.0: the Asset Administration Shell (AAS). In the future, an AAS will be created for each WBT machine already during the planning phase. Throughout the machine’s lifecycle, the associated AAS – its digital twin – will be enriched with generated data.
This enrichment will occur via a data connector to be developed, which integrates machine data from WBT’s various IT systems (ERP, PDM) as well as from the machines themselves, which are in use at customer sites, into their respective AAS.
The AAS is specified in the publication series “Details of the Asset Administration Shell” (Part 1, Part 2) of Plattform Industrie 4.0. Furthermore, at the beginning of 2021, the Industrial Digital Twin Association e.V. (IDTA) was founded by VDMA, ZVEI, Bitkom and 20 other companies to sustainably establish the AAS in the market using open technologies.
The AAS is a digital, semantically enriched description of an asset (a tangible or intangible, uniquely identifiable object with value for a company: machine, product, contract, software, etc.) with a standardized meta-information model and a standardized programming interface (API). The standardization aims, among other things, to significantly simplify and accelerate data integration, cross-company collaboration, and the interaction of components within an Industry 4.0 system. Based on their AASs, the components of such a system can interact autonomously and across technologies, exchanging semantically enriched, machine-interpretable data. Representations of the AAS exist, among others, in XML, JSON, and OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA).
The data connector will integrate data from WBT’s ERP and PDM systems via HTTP/REST and from customer machines via OPC UA into the machines’ AASs. The AASs, in turn, will be made available for retrieval on an HTTP server. A newly developed, web-based service dashboard will access the AAS API of this server and present the machine data graphically and intuitively for service employees. This dashboard is intended to inform employees, in particular, when a customer machine reports a service need. The centrally available machine data will significantly simplify the work of employees and accelerate service processes.
The result of the DigiBrush transfer pilot will be a prototypical implementation of WBT’s optimized service process on an EdgeRacer (deburring machine). A demonstration of the solution will be permanently presented in the it’s OWL Demonstration Center SmartFactoryOWL.