Dynamic digital twin for predictive maintenance in flexible production systems

Technical innovations to improve production systems flexibility have been extensively investigated and are already available to industrial practice. However, the production companies' internal structures and processes must also meet these flexibility requirements in order for system adjustments to be efficiently carried out. Due to the direct influence on availability, performance and quality losses, maintenance is particularly relevant. Therefore, this paper considers the effects of flexibility on the promising strategy of predictive maintenance. With the digital twin, its update service and a labelling interface, the essential components of a predictive maintenance system for flexible production systems are introduced in detail. This application is based on a reference plant in the form of a flexible hybrid assembly system. The outlook discusses the transferability to other industrial use cases.