Open Access

Daniel Pause, Philipp Brauner, Marco Faber, Markus Fischer, Philipp Hünnekes, Henning Petruck, Alexander Mertens, Verena Nitsch, Günther Schuh, Volker Stich, Martina Ziefle

• Due to the increasing spread of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) suitable for shop floors, the production environment can more easily be digitally connected to the various decision making levels of a production system. This connectivity as well as an increasing availability of high-resolution feedback data, can be used for decision support for all levels of the company and supply chain. To enable data driven decision support, different data sources were structured and linked. The data was combined in task-specific digital shadows, selecting clustering and aggregation rules to gain information. Visual interfaces for task-specific decision support systems (DSS) were developed and evaluated positively by domain experts. The complexity of decision making on different levels was successfully reduced as an effect of the processed amounts of data. These interfaces support decision making, but can additionally be improved if DSS are extended with smart agents as proposed in the Internet of Production.