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DIMA Leads to Smart Production

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With DIMA, WAGO has developed a new, manufacturer-independent solution for automating adaptable production facilities. The goal of the approach is to allow modification of production systems within a short time. Thus DIMA combines the advantages of the modularity of production facilities with Industry 4.0 approaches that are currently under discussion.

The Digitization of Production

No other Western country is as oriented towards industrial production as Germany. In 2011, to prepare itself for the seismic shifts that are underway and take an active role in determining the outcome, the German federal government proclaimed the fourth industrial revolution: Industry 4.0. The focus is on digitization of production. But why? Digitization allows information to be linked in a way that generates added value. This added value can consist in revealing interrelationships, optimizing control in production processes or simplifying systems engineering. And there is an explicit need to simplify and accelerate engineering: If manufacturing companies need to adapt their product features on short notice in order to react to market changes, this ultimately also means that they have to convert their production facilities in order to produce the new product – and they generally do not have much time to do so.

Industry 4.0 in Real-World Production Systems

Looking closely at today’s production systems, we quickly discover that they are not designed for the requirements of rapid conversion, simply because properties such as mobility, scalability, universality, compatibility and especially modularity were not taken into account in the initial application planning. However, modularity is a core requirement for adaptable production systems. There is a good reason for this: “Carving up” today’s monolithic systems into modules opens up a wide range of options. It becomes possible to easily adapt the production volume, relocate individual modules, carry out testing and perform run-in and acceptance at the R&D site, so the system can then be sent to the actual production site – without the need for trained engineers available at the production site.

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Automation of Modular Applications

Ideally, the virtual map (AAS) of the production system should always correspond to physical reality – even within the process control system. If a new module is added, it should possible to represent it in the process control system without additional programming effort and use it immediately – very much in the spirit of a “plug-and-produce” paradigm. It’s obvious that such a system architecture requires a new approach to automation of systems: decentralized processing intelligence. Together with the Dresden University of Technology and Helmut Schmidt University of Hamburg, WAGO dedicated itself to this approach and presented DIMA (Decentralized Intelligence for Modular Applications) in November 2014.

DIMA shifts large parts of the control intelligence to the modules. These provide their intended function as services that can be accessed by other communication elements via a standardized interface. A module is still operated via control screens. Furthermore, the control screens are also described in such a way that they can be generated automatically in any target systems.

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MTP Approach of an Administration Shell

The process for announcing the services and control screens is not based on proprietary solutions, but rather on a new description method – the “Module Type Package” (MTP). This serves as a digital description of a system module and contains all the information required for integrating the module into the system and then operating it. Modeling this capability description is the core of DIMA. The process function of the module (for example, the reaction of a reactor module) is modeled in the form of a service, i.e. a closed function, which is only addressed via its standardized interface. Thus the process control level becomes the service user. The services of all modules connected to the backbone and announced by an MTP are orchestrated in the engineering tool of the process control level.

MTP – an Initial Real-World Module

As the digital calling card of a system module, the “Module Type Package” (MTP) provides an initial approach to implementing the virtual representative in the information network. It already represents the application module’s functions and manages them within the architecture of the overall system. Thus MTP is an initial real-world module to meet Industry 4.0 requirements. However, the program code necessary for this service is executed in the module.

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DIMA – the Solution for Modular Automation

The basic idea of this modular system architecture: integrate properly equipped modules with integrated automation into the overall system with minimal effort. It offers an open system architecture and allows cost-effective engineering of the entire system. Read about how DIMA drives adaptable, smart production here.

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