Real-time locating system and digital twin in Lean 4.0

Abstract

Digital twin plays a key role in the current development of smart manufacturing systems. Through simulation in the cyber world, real phenomena in the physical world can be predicted and optimized before the final implementation. The usage of the digital twin is enhanced along with the uprising of Industry 4.0, in which data availability supports the further insight of system status, helping the operation managers understand their system and perform resources adjustment more easily. Based on this digitization mature, Lean 4.0, a new concept elaborated from Lean manufacturing, has been interested recently. There are several technologies constituted digital twin that provide a favourable condition for Lean 4.0, such as augmented reality, cloud computing. In this paper, the integration of the Real-time Locating System (RTLS) into digital twin is proposed, which facilitates the performance of Lean 4.0 in manufacturing operation. Not only gain effective control over the facility’s assets, but this integration also enhances the resources utilization, cut down operational wastes, thus brings a better turnover for industrial systems. A case study of successful implementation is shown, which proved the possible advantages of this approach.