Towards a connected factory: Shop-floor data analytics in cyber-physical environments

Abstract In the era of the industrial digitalization, the availability of shop-floor data is not a question anymore, but rather the exploitation of the underlying information. With advanced sensor technologies, detailed data can be obtained about products, resources and processes in near real time, however, still there are gaps between the collection of the data, and the utilization of it. The greatest current challenge is the use of available data in decisionmaking processes that brings the real business value for companies, to keep their competitiveness and internal efficiency. In the paper, a reference model of an industrial data analytics platform is presented that supports the integration of various analytics solutions with enterprise level decision support tools, such as planning and scheduling systems. The reference model is composed of various layers, supporting the collection, storage and analysis of data coming from various sources. In addition to its business intelligence related dashboarding and visualization functions, it provides the opportunity of linking the analytics results with other software applications. In order to highlight the capabilities of the proposed model, possible application domains and use-cases are presented, reflecting real industrial needs.