High resolution and transparent production informatics

Today, we are at the brink of a new industrial revolution, the fourth to be precise, in which information technologies and computer science results are to become first class citizens of the so-called cyber-physical productionand logistics systems movement. The ubiquitous presence of communication networks, smartand embedded devices and the socalled cloud allow the real-time tight coupling of the material and information flow of productionand logistics processes and enable formerly hard-to-achieve goals, approaches and novel technologies. However, there are some caveats remaining from the previous industrial revolution in both the physicaland the cyber-world. First, it appears the third industrial revolution revolved around mostly the programmable logic controller (PLC) that helped automate processes but even though (personal) computers and communication networks were in their infancy, the lack of understanding and unable to see their potential, companies didn’t push these technologies in time, potentially delaying the evolution by decades. Second, as computers and networks became more accessible, software supporting the manufacturingand logistics operations where developed, but these couldn’t really interchange information with each other neither within nor outside the organization borders; therefore, many processes kept relying on paper-based or phone call-based recording and data-exchange protocols. Just a small step above these, the use of a (usually free-form) spreadsheet for planning and coordination left many information sources untapped. Third, the need for standards in communication and data formats were eventually realized, however, many of them were designed by ’comittees’ with limited sight and expertise and were forced upon implementors and companies in the name of conformance (i.e., see Common Object Request Broker Architecture2 and Electronic Data Interchange3). Not to mention, many competing standards were introduced and employed over the years4. In the new millennium, the availability of various information technologies to all, mostly competing companies doesn’t give the expected ’competitive’ edge in itself anymore. Companies are looking at buzzwords such as Big Data, the Cloud and the aforementioned cyber-physical 2http://www.omg.org/spec/CORBA/3.3/ 3http://www.nist.gov/itl/, although hard to locate 4Summarized in the famous XKCD strip: https://xkcd.com/927/