Advanced scientific algorithms in digital factory design applications

Abstract

In contrast to manual procedures, research constantly develops modern computerized factory design approaches applying concepts of Industry 4.0. Nevertheless, literature hardly reveals their practical application. A market review analyzing recent software applications shows that they still focus on simple and outdated algorithms, resulting in limited support for facility arrangement. This study further analyzes the use of scientific approaches implemented in software applications for factory design and suggests new research directions to increase their practical applicability. Therefore, we conducted a semi-structured interview study investigating four layout design software developers. Applying an iterative approach, semi-structured and guided interviews were performed, coded, grouped into categories referring to similar phenomena, and interpreted to provide proposals for future research. The results indicate that innovative, automated methods are met with skepticism, although their performance is considerably superior to traditional approaches. The interviewed developers for factory design software reveal certain features they expect from modern approaches emerging from research to ensure successful implementation.