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Assessment of IS Integration Efforts to Implement the Internet of Production Reference Architecture
(2018)
As part of a collaborative network, manufacturing companies are required to be agile and accelerate their decision making. To do so, a high amount of data is available and needs to be utilized. To enable this from a company internal information system perspective, the Internet of Production (IoP) describes a future information system (IS) architecture. Core element of the IoP is a digital platform building the basis for a network of cognitive systems. To implement and continuously further develop the IoP, manufacturing companies need to make architecture-related decisions concerning the accessibility of data, the processing of the data as well as the visualization of the information. The goal of this research is the development of a decision-support methodology to make those decisions, taking under consideration the evaluated IS integration effort. Therefore, this paper describes the allocation of IS functions and identifies the effort drivers for the respective IS integration by analyzing the integration possibilities. Conclusively this approach will be validated in a case study.
Management of information and the IT systems it is stored in becomes a crucial capability for the industry. However, companies are struggling with the management of the various requirements and frequent changes of technology. Thus, IT complexity has become a major challenge for companies. At the same time, especially manufacturing companies are striving to implement Industrie 4.0 concepts. Many of these even have developed an Industrie 4.0 roadmap including various projects to change the company. Companies can develop such roadmaps by applying the Industrie 4.0 Maturity Index that gives a broad view on necessary capabilities for Industrie 4.0.
In our research, we analyzed data sets from over 10 manufacturing companies that have performed an Industrie 4.0 maturity assessment. Our hypothesis was that IT complexity challenges are hindering the implementation of Industrie 4.0 roadmaps significantly. We could prove this hypothesis at least for the companies analyzed and give insights on the specific challenges. Based on our analysis, we conclude our article by giving concrete recommendations on how to tackle IT complexity.