Virtual Metrology (AVM) that has been certified with the invention patents from six countries (Taiwan ROC, USA, Japan, Germany, China, and Korea) developed by the research team of Fan‐Tien Cheng, the Editor and main author of this book, ZD can be achieved as AVM can provide the Total Inspection data of all products online and in real time. A defective product will be discarded once it is detected by AVM; in this way, all of the deliverables will be ZD. Further, the Key‐variable Search Algorithm (KSA) of the Intelligent Yield Management (IYM) system developed by our research team can be utilized to find out the root causes of the defects for continuous improvement on those defective products. As such, ZD of all products can be achieved. Therefore, once AVM and IYM are integrated into the successfully developed Industry 4.0 platform constituting of Internet of things (IoT), CPS, big data analytics, and cloud computing, the state of ZD can be realized, which is defined as Industry 4.1 by Fan‐Tien Cheng. The concepts of Industry 4.1 were disclosed in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters in January 2016.
To realize and promote Intelligent Manufacturing, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) established the Intelligent Manufacturing Research Center (iMRC) with Professor Fan‐Tien Cheng being its Director. Based on the platform of Advanced Manufacturing Cloud of Things (AMCoT) that won IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE) 2017 Best Application Paper Award, iMRC integrates cross‐disciplinary research resources, utilizes various Intelligent‐Manufacturing related technologies, and implements Intelligent Manufacturing services [including AVM, IYM, Intelligent Predictive Maintenance (IPM), …, etc.] to develop the so‐called Intelligent Factory Automation (iFA) System Platform. Through implementing the iFA System Platform to the manufacturing tools and production lines of high‐tech (e.g. semiconductor, TFT‐LCD, and solar cell) and traditional industries (e.g. machine tool, aerospace, blow molding machine, and carbon fiber), ZD of all products as well as highly efficient and flexible intelligence capabilities (single‐machine intelligence, production‐line intelligence, and global‐fab intelligence) can be accomplished for improving the competitiveness and profits of all Intelligent‐Manufacturing related industries.
Organization and Features
To promote Intelligent Manufacturing and carry out the vision of Industry 4.1, our research team decided to include the survey and introduction of Intelligent Manufacturing, as well as the intact concept and the core technologies of Industry 4.1, along with the successful cases of iFA implementation for Industry 4.1 in different industries all in this book. This book contains 11 chapters in total. Chapters 1–5 describe the evolution of automation and the development strategy of Intelligent Manufacturing and introduce the mandatory components and fundamental technologies for constructing Intelligent Manufacturing. Chapter 6 introduces the overall concept of iFA integrated by the AMCoT framework with pluggable modules of AVM, IPM, and IYM intelligent services. Two versions of the iFA System Platform are provided for different business models. Chapter 7 illustrates the AMCoT framework for constructing the advanced cloud manufacturing platform. Chapters 8–10 address the principles and implementation of AVM, IPM, and IYM, respectively. Finally, the actual Intelligent‐Manufacturing implementation and application cases adopting all the techniques mentioned above in seven industries, including flat panel display, solar cell, semiconductor, automobile, aerospace, carbon fiber, and blow molding, are presented in Chapter 11. Moreover, all the major patents related to AMCoT, AVM, IPM, and IYM are listed in Appendices 7.C, 8.C, 9.C, and 10.C, respectively.
Fan‐Tien Cheng
Life Fellow, IEEE
Chair Professor, NCKU
Director of Intelligent Manufacturing Research Center (iMRC), NCKU
July 2021
Acknowledgments
Firstly, I would like to thank all the contributors for sharing their precious knowledge and experience in their professional fields. Throughout numerous discussions, the outline of this book is gradually shaped. I really appreciate their time and effort devoted in writing this book.
In addition to the authors listed, I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to my secretaries and research assistants: Pei‐Ying Du, Ken‐Ying Liao, Yan‐Yu Shih, and Benny Suryajaya, for their dedication in completing the book. I want to sincerely thank them for helping with the translation, layout arrangement, proofreading, artwork illustration, and contribution in any manuscript preparation tasks. Without their effort, I, the editor and main contributor, as well as the other contributors couldn’t have made it this far.
Fan‐Tien Cheng
Life Fellow, IEEE
Chair Professor, NCKU
Director of Intelligent Manufacturing Research Center (iMRC), NCKU
July 2021
Foreword
Since the term “Industry 4.0” was coined in Germany in 2011, industries worldwide have been investing in the development of smart factories that are more efficient and better adaptive to digital transformation to enhance their service‐oriented and customized‐supply capabilities.
To take Industry 4.0 a step further, Professor Fan‐Tien Cheng proposed the upgraded version of Industry 4.1, core to which is the realization of Zero Defects, a solution taking advantage of the newly developed Intelligent Factory Automation (iFA) System Platform to address the production quality issue that has received relatively scant attention in Industry 4.0. To put into practice Zero Defects as well as in response to the Intelligent Manufacturing Industry Innovation policy of the Taiwan, ROC government, he further established the Intelligent Manufacturing Research Center (iMRC) at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in 2018.
As NCKU’s President, I always take great pride in the achievements of all my colleagues and students. In the latest Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2020, NCKU is ranked first in Taiwan, ROC, second in the Asia region, and 38th globally. It excels especially in “Industry, Innovations, and Infrastructure,” one of United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and earns the 10th place worldwide. Professor Cheng’s innovative research has played a critical role in this intense competition because, as I understand it, his Industry 4.1 and Intelligent Manufacturing are key to NCKU’s success in the SDG of “Industry, Innovations, and Infrastructure” and NCKU’s continuous leadership in the Engineering field.
As NCKU is accelerating its research momentum, especially in disciplines of traditional strengths like Intelligent Manufacturing and Engineering, I am glad that Professor Cheng is willing to share his valuable research and industry‐university cooperation experiences in this book, one that will become an important reference not only for students but professors and researchers alike, and not only at NCKU but in industries and higher education worldwide whose focus is Intelligent Manufacturing.