Supporting Tools for Transition towards Industry 4.0: A Pressurized Cylinder Manufacturing Case Study

The main purpose of this work is to report an implemented novel methodology to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) managers in better understanding the specific requirements for the implementation of Industry 4.0 solutions and the derived benefits within their firms. The methodology was implemented in a pressurized cylinder manufacturing company as a case study. The cylinder losing, inadequate scrap management, and bottlenecking in body welding were identified as three of the main problems that could be addressed through Industry 4.0. Potential solutions were considered and found suitable solutions for the problems. For example, Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tool was proposed to prevent the illegal cross-filling and illegal cylinder swapping problems and it will help for cylinder identification. A rough techno-economic feasibility analysis was also done for the proposed solutions, which will be helpful for SMEs manager to decide regarding when and how to migrate Industry 4.0.