A work process supporting the implementation of smart factory technologies developed in smart factory compliant laboratory environment

The industry is facing major challenges today. The challenges are tougher global competition, customers who require individualized products and shorter product lifecycles. The predicted industrial revolution is a way to deal with these challenges. Industry 4.0 includes strategies linked to several technologies that will meet the new needs. Smart factory is a central concept in industry 4.0, which involves connected technologies of various kinds. Such as digital manufacturing technology, network communication technology, computer technology, automation technology and several other areas. In this work, these were defined as smart factory technologies. Implementing such technologies will result in improved flexibility, resource productivity and efficiency, quality, etc. But, implementing smart factory technologies poses major challenges for the companies. Laboratory environments can be utilized to address the challenges. This results in a new problem, how to transfer a smart factory technology developed in a laboratory environment to a full-scale production system. In the literature study no, structured approach was identified to handle this challenge. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to: create a work process that supports the technology transfer from a smart factory compliant laboratory environment to a full-scale production system. To justify the purpose, the following research questions were answered: RQ1: What are the differences in the operating environment between the laboratory and the full-scale production system? RQ2: How is a smart factory technology determined ready to be implemented into a full-scale production system? RQ3: What critical factors should a work process for the implementation of smart factory technologies include? The research questions were answered by conducting a multiple-case study in collaboration with Scania CV AB. During the case studies, interviews, observations and other relevant types of data collection were conducted. The results were as follows: RQ1: How difficult it is to transfer a technology from a laboratory environment to a full-scale production system depends on how large the differences between these are. The general difference is that laboratory environments are used to experiment and develop technologies and a full-scale production system is used to produce products. Some want the laboratory environment to be an exact copy of a full-scale production system, but this is not appropriate because it means you lose the freedom of experimentation and it would be much more expensive. RQ2: Determining whether a smart factory technology is ready consists of two parts, laboratory activities and pilot testing. A structured assessment method has been developed. The laboratory operations reduce the risks and contribute to raising the degree of maturity of the technology. In pilot testing, it is important not to interfere with the full-scale production system stability. This is the reason for doing pilot testing in a delimited area first and checking that the technology works as desired. RQ3: The critical factors identified were: competence and knowledge, technology contributing to improvements, considering risks with implementation, cost versus potential improvement, clear goals and reason for implementation and communication