Integration of Digital Factory with Smart Factory Based on Internet of Things

Internet of things (IoT) in manufacturing can be defined as a future where every day physical objects in the shop floor, people and systems (things) are connected by the Internet to build services critical to the manufacturing. Smart factory is a way towards a factory-of-things, which is very much aligned with IoT. IoT not only deals with smart connections between physical objects but also with the interaction with different IT tools used within the digital factory. Data and information come from heterogeneous IT systems and from different domains, viewpoints, levels of granularity and life cycle phases causing potential inconsistencies in the data sharing, preventing interoperability. Hence, our aim is to investigate approaches and principles when integrating the digital factory, IT tools and IoT in manufacturing in a heterogeneous IT environment to ensure data consistency. In particular this paper suggests an approach to identify what, when and how information should be integrated. Secondly it suggests integration between IoT and PLM platforms using semantic web technologies and Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) standard on tool interoperability.