Retrofit Concept for Textile Production.

In production, an intelligent analysis of the data provided along the production line bears huge potential for increasing process efficiency and reducing production costs. The (continuous) collection of relevant data is a crucial precondition for every Industry 4.0 or smart technology. While new machines have internal controllers and sensors to meet those requirements, this is usually not the case for machines being already in use. Especially in the textile industry, it is often standard to keep old machines since the manufacturing methods themselves haven’t changed significantly over the past decades. Hence, the successful exploitation of digitalization advantages requires these companies to first develop and implement a digitization strategy. In this paper we present a concept which allows to develop modular, scalable, flexible solutions considering the whole digitization process from data acquisition to storage. The concept is complemented by a guideline for its application in industry. Experience from a prototypical application in a textile company is described. The concept enables companies to determine the various conditions and requirements for digitization, to analyze different possibilities and to deduce scenarios that lead to a solution for the effective utilization of Industry 4.0 technologies.