A Smart Shop Floor Information System Architecture Based on the Unified Namespace

Modern research in the field of Smart Manufacturing often focuses on the big data aspect, where the goal is to obtain actionable insights from the data. In this paper, the focus is shifted back to the Smart Shop Floor and how to efficiently derive information with the big data tasks that follow as simple as possible. A condensed literature review of the existing architectures and frameworks for Smart Manufacturing is combined with the experience of practitioners to assess the requirements for a Smart Shop Floor Information System Architecture. On this basis, an architecture is proposed that consists of eight modular building blocks. After a detailed description of the roles and functionalities of these building blocks, a reference implementation using readily available, open-source tools and technologies is laid out. This reference implementation intends to strike the right balance between generality and specificity. It provides the reader with a tangible starting point for implementing and adapting the proposed architecture to their own needs.