Enabling individualized mass production with lot size 1 is one of the main goals of Industry 4.0. A high-resolution weigh module has proven to be the ideal solution for reliable, flexible and simple quality control for such individualized products.
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The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (Deutsche Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz or DFKI) is the leading institute for boosting the implemenation of Industry 4.0. To link its research with a practical application, the DFKI founded the SmartFactoryKL organization. In cooperation with leading companies, SmartFactoryKL has developed a fully functional demonstration plant for discrete manufacturing as a concrete example of how individualized mass production could be realized with Industry 4.0.
Product memory for individualized mass production
To demonstrate individualized production with lot size 1, the SmartFactoryKL plant produces personalized business card cases in different colors. The case has a "product memory" in the form of a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag. This RFID tag stores all the necessary information for manufacturing, such as parts lists, production status, the name to be engraved and also quality parameters.
With the data stored on the RFID tag, the cases actively manage their own production. This allows the individual cases to be made very flexibly, without the need for production control with the database, and individualized mass production with lot size 1 becomes a reality.
Flexible quality assurance method
It's important to note that a manufacturing process consisting of automatic and manual modules does not guarantee that the individual components were actually installed on the case. Therefore, the cases are weighed for quality control with a high-precision WMS weigh module. Their weigh value is compared with the specific target weight that is stored in the RFID tag. Weight detection with a high-precision weigh module makes it possible to detect faulty, missing or excess components with great certainty, even if a part of the outside is not visible.
Weigh module reflected in RAMI 4.0 model
- Business = Quality Control
- Functional = Detecting Deviations
- Information = Weight + Tolerances
- Communication = PROFINET IO
- Integration = Industrial Ethernet
- Asset = "Control Device" WMS Weigh Module
Our new white paper explains the application and benefits of weight-based quality control.