Digital Transformation in Project-Based Manufacturing: Developing the Isa-95 Model for Vertical Integration

Abstract

The Smart Factory is the intelligent management of all business operations that aims to produce innovative products in the most efficient and faster way through the cyber-physical system (CPS). CPS integrates the cyber (IT) and the physical world (OT) through the hierarchical layers of ISA-95 model and forms the backbone of Industry 4.0. The CPS plays a crucial role in transforming data from interconnected systems, and it is a pre-requisite for the entire system to be able to interact. The ISA-95 model consists of components that can be used to determine how the interaction between domains vertically within the facility. However, the current ISA-95 Model does not include all the components that need to be integrated in vertical integration of all domains. The product domain is one of them. All IT and OT components need to be represented in the ISA-95 layers to achieve an ideal CPS structure. In this study, all components needed to achieve the ideal CPS structure have been identified in an expanded ISA-95 Model for project-based manufacturers. An extended ISA-95 model is proposed so that each manufacturing industry can use it in the digital transformation process by adding a product domain and connectivity layer to the Model. The Model was tested and confirmed, by conducting a case study which was based on implementing the vertical integration on it. This model helps businesses to develop more effective digital transformation strategies by defining where they should focus on or from where they should start the digital transformation processes.