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.
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.
Networked information gives rise to added value.
Production processes can be improved.
Plant engineering is simplified.
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.
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.
“Plug-and-produce” technology is edging closer. With DIMA, switching out system modules in less than three minutes is possible.