Definition of Smart Retrofitting: First Steps for a Company to Deploy Aspects of Industry 4.0

Nowadays, it is a matter of survival for companies to keep their ability for adapting rapidly to changes. The causes that drive to them are related to external and internal factors. One of the main reasons for these factors is the new possibility that Industry 4.0 brings with it. One of the visions of Industry 4.0 is the production of highly customized products within a mass production line. In addition to it, an intelligent interaction happens between machine–objects–people and this occurs vertically and horizontally within the company. However, most industrial parks are not technologically prepared for the concepts of Industry 4.0; thereby this paper proposes the concept of Smart Retrofitting regarding these challenges. As a result, the methodology proposes to take aspects of Industry 4.0 relevant to a specific process, since this could be the first step for a company to implement the concepts of Industry 4.0. Once these aspects are selected, they will be put into practice with the help of cyber-physical systems. With the application of Smart Retrofitting, it will be possible for companies to adhere in a short time to the requirements of Industry 4.0. In this way, it will be possible to remain competitive in the market. Regarding this paper, there will be a case study for the implementation of Smart Retrofitting. As case study, a drilling process was chosen in a thyssenkrupp manufacturing plant in Brazil to start implementing the Smart Retrofitting, and for this first step it was possible to achieve an improvement of the feed rate reducing it by approximately 9% without reducing the lifetime of the tooling.