Innovations such as combustion engines, electricity and assembly lines have all had a significant role in manufacturing, where the past three industrial revolutions have changed the way manufacturing is performed. The technical progress within the manufacturing industry continues at a high rate and today's progress can be seen as a part of the fourth industrial revolution. The progress can be exemplified by ”Industrie 4.0”; the German government's vision of future manufacturing. Previous studies have been conducted with the aim of investigating the benefits, progress and relevance of Industry 4.0-technologies. Little emphasis in these studies has been put on differences in implementation and relevance of Industry 4.0-technologies across and within industries. This thesis aims to investigate the adoption of Industry 4.0-technologies among and within selected industries and what types of patterns that exists among them. Using a qualitative multiple case study consisting of firms from Aerospace, Heavy equipment, Automation, Electronics and Motor Vehicle Industry, we gain insight into how leading firms are implementing the technologies. In order to identify the factors determining how Industry 4.0-technologies are implemented and what common themes can be found, we introduce the concept production logic, which is built upon the connection between competitive priorities; quality, flexibility, delivery time, cost efficiency and ergonomics. This thesis has two contributions. In our first contribution, we have categorized technologies within Industry 4.0 into two bundles; the Human-Machine-Interface (HMI) and the connectivity bundle. The HMI bundle includes devices for assisting operators in manufacturing activities, such as touchscreens, augmented reality and collaborative robots. The connectivity-bundle includes systems for connecting devices, collecting and analyzing data from the digitalized factory. The result of this master thesis indicates that depending on a firm’s or industry’s logic of production, the adoption of elements from the technology bundles differ. Firms where flexibility is dominant tend to implement elements from the HMI-bundle to a larger degree. In the other end, firms with few product variations where quality and efficiency dominates the production logic tends to implement elements from the connectivity bundle in order to tightly monitor and improve quality in their assembly. Regardless of production logic, firms are implementing elements from both bundles, but with different composition and applications. The second contribution is within the literature of technological transitions. In this contribution, we have studied the rise and development of the HMI-bundle in the light of Geels (2002) Multi-Level Perspective (MLP). It can be concluded that an increased pressure on the landscape-level in the form of changes in the consumer-market and the attitudes within the labor force has created a gradual spread of the HMI-bundle within industries. The bundles have also been studied through Rogers (1995) five attributes of innovation, where the lack of testability and observability prevents increased application of M2M-interfaces. Concerning Big Data and analytics, the high complexity prevents the technology from being further applied. As the HMI-bundle involves a number of technologies with large differences in properties, it is hard draw any conclusion using the attributes of innovation about what limits their application.

Background This research study is in collaboration with the Blekinge Institute of Technology and Volvo Cars Body Components (VCBC). VCBC is a car manufacturer that manufactures car body components in Olofström, Sweden. VCBC is also a supplier for Volvo Cars production sites around the world, which puts more responsibility on VCBC and their work process. One of the limitations of this research will be a focus on a production line for nut welding, where various projection welding features are present.   Objectives The objectives of the study are to investigate the problems with the production line and present a conceptual solution which can make the process more efficient and effective in terms of e.g. the cycle time, value-adding activities, improvements of traditional work processes or equipment, ergonomics safety, reduction of frequent errors, etc. Most of the objectives are influenced by principles in lean manufacturing theory but will be compiled and integrated with new innovative solutions that are influenced by digitalization and industry 4.0. Methods The methods and tools which will be used for this research will be primarily from process engineering and systems engineering. Autodesk AutoCAD, Siemens Process Designer PLM and Robot Load are some of the software that will be used. Some tools and strategies used for the methodological approach are e.g. The design thinking process, Six Sigma, FMEA, Question-Method-Matrix, Material flow analysis, and Value stream analysis. Results A concept layout solution was generated, which consists primarily of a model in Autodesk AutoCAD and a simulated prototype in Siemens Process Designer PLM. Through several analyzes, based on the objectives of the research, it has been conducted that the concept is more efficient than the current process. Specifications such as cycle time, production line area, value-adding activities, etc. have been improved drastically. Several innovative idea solutions based on digitalization and industry 4.0 were also generated by implementing them as a way of tackling the challenges with lean theories and develop the traditional work process in a factory. Conclusions The contribution of the research analysis is the implementation of lean theories together with modern strategies, tools and software are from systems engineering and process engineering together with ideation and problem-solving techniques. This itself has contributed to all goal objectives of the research study being achieved, assessed and validated.

With the ongoing trend in moving the upper levels of the automation hierarchy to the cloud, there has been investigation into supplying industrial automation as a cloud based service. There are many practical considerations which pose limitations on the feasibility of the idea. This research investigates some of the requirements which would be needed to implement a platform which would facilitate competition between different controllers which would compete to control a process in real-time. This work considers only the issues relating to implementation of the philosophy from a control theoretic perspective, issues relating to hardware/communications infrastructure and cyber security are beyond the scope of this work. A platform is formulated and all the relevant control requirements of the system are discussed. It is found that in order for such a platform to determine the behaviour of a controller, it would need to simulate the controller on a model of the process over an extended period of time. This would require a measure of the disturbance to be available, or at least an estimate thereof. This therefore increases the complexity of the platform. The practicality of implementing such a platform is discussed in terms of system identification and model/controller maintenance. A model of the surge tank from SibanyeStillwater’s Platinum bulk tailings treatment (BTT) plant, the aim of which is to keep the density of the tank outflow constant while maintaining a steady tank level, was derived, linearised and an input-output controllability analysis performed on the model. Six controllers were developed for the process, including four conventional feedback controllers (decentralised PI, inverse, modified inverse and H¥) and two Model Predictive Controllers (MPC) (one linear and another nonlinear). It was shown that both the inverse based and H¥ controllers fail to control the tank level to set-point in the event of an unmeasured disturbance. The competing concept was successfully illustrated on this process with the linear MPC controller being the most often selected controller, and the overall performance of the plant substantially improved by having access to more advanced control techniques, which is facilitated by the proposed platform. A first appendix presents an investigation into a previously proposed switching philosophy [15] in terms of its ability to determine the best controller, as well as the stability of the switching scheme. It is found that this philosophy cannot provide an accurate measure of controller performance owing to the use of one step ahead predictions to analyse controller behaviour. Owing to this, the philosophy can select an unstable controller when there is a stable, well tuned controller competing to control the process. A second appendix shows that there are cases where overall system performance can be improved through the use of the proposed platform. In the presence of constraints on the rate of change of the inputs, a more aggressive controller is shown to be selected so long as the disturbance or reference changes do not cause the controller to violate these input constraints. This means that switching back to a less aggressive controller is necessary in the event that the controller attempts to violate these constraints. This is demonstrated on a simple first order plant as well as the surge tank process. Overall it is concluded that, while there are practical issues surrounding plant and system identification and model/controller maintenance, it would be possible to implement such a platform which would allow a given plant access to advanced process control solutions without the need for procuring the services of a large vendor. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / MEng / Unrestricted

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In today’s industry, companies are, to an increasing degree, beginning to embrace the concept of industry 4.0. One of these companies is Diab which has a factory located in Laholm where they manufacture composite material. Some of the machines at the factory are older with outdated control systems and require a way to log data in real-time. The goal of the project is to create a working prototype system that can monitor the production flow in real-time by using sensors to collect data about the work efficiency of the machine, measuring the idle time when the machine is working and when it’s not and storing this data in a database which can be accessible by a Graphical User Interface (GUI). The purpose is to investigate the requirements to get a fully operatable system and what it takes to maintain it to get an idea if the system should be self-developed by the company or buy/license from a third party. The system was built by using a NodeMCU ESP32, a Raspberry Pi 4B and a SparkFun DistanceSensor Breakout VL53L1X, and for the software to program the NodeMCU ESP32, Arduino IDE was used; Java language was used to develop the server on the Raspberry Pi and, together with MariaDB, to store the data. The tests that were conducted showed that the data could be displayed within a second in the created GUI but could not guarantee a reading of a passing block; however, it gave a good overview of the workflow of the machine. An improvement of the system is suggested by using visual-based object detection. An overview of the production in real-time can allow for future possibilities of optimising the production flow and, with an improvement of the system, can increase the automation of the production, which can bring the company closer to the concept of industry 4.0.

Background: While technologies are progressing exponentially and inevitably becoming an essential as a means for business to adapt and survive, no exception is the finance division. Digitalization activities have become do or die tasks for many companies and have been a challenging process for finance departments. Yet, in the context of Finance 4.0 it is barely researched. Due to evolving understanding of how finance departments should look, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) as the leader of the whole finance division is going through a lot of changes surrounded by uncertainty. The expectations for CFO and finance department are increasing and it becomes unclear what financial specialists should actually deliver for business. Hence, this paper aims to identify how CFO’s role is changing because of Finance 4.0, otherwise known as finance function digitalization, and what skills will be needed to successfully work as CFO in the new environment that seeks to become fully digital and automated. Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis research is to identify and analyze how the CFO’s role is changing because of Finance 4.0 and what skills will be required in future for the CFO position.  Method: A qualitative study with interpretivism philosophy, inductive approach and narrative inquiry strategy is taken as the best options for this particular study. Semi-structured interviews with Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) is a method for primary data collection as well as thematic data analysis for gathered data analysis are chosen in order to answer research questions. Conclusion: This research investigates how Finance 4.0 is changing the role of CFO as well as explores what future skills are required for the profession. The research clearly reveals that digitalization is affecting CFO’s role significantly and brings more uncertainty. Research results show that fundamental responsibilities of a CFO will not undergo changes any time soon as well as the skills required for work will remain largely the same. This is because the professional skills of a CFO directly reflect the responsibilities and working tasks, and, moreover, the finance departments are not completely undigitized. However, even though the foundation of the CFO role remains the same, digital disruption causes expansion and increased complexity. While existing academic knowledge is focused mostly on the change process itself and the benefits of digitalization, CFOs revealed what is challenging for them during this digital journey and what negative effect they have experienced.

This thesis investigates the possibility of connecting an embedded device, STM32 B-L4S5I-IOT01A IoT discovery node, to a Eclipse Arrowhead framework local cloud.This thesis also examines the benefits of using the Eclipse Arrowhead framework compared to its competitors Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. The world is entering a new industrial revolution, often referred to as Industry 4.0, moving towards a more decentralized and software-oriented means of production.This fourth industrial revolution incorporates System of Systems, Cyber-Physical Systems, and embedded software technologies. One of the internet-based industrial solutions is the Eclipse Arrowhead framework. The Eclipse Arrowhead framework contains many examples in various promgramming languages and technologies but lacks an example of a specific piece of hardware connecting to a local Eclipse Arrowhead cloud.Therefore, a project with the clear intent to showcase both the capabilities and possibilities of Cyber-Physical systems and the Eclipse Arrowhead framework is needed. The system this thesis implements consists of three major parts: the stm32 board, a Python flask app, and the Eclipse Arrowhead framework.The main objective of the Eclipse Arrowhead framework is to connect the consumer and the provider in a safe and structured way.The provider is built with C/C++ using ARMs' mbed os.  The response time of the different frameworks, Eclipse Arrowhead framework and Amazon Web Services, was measured.We made a thousand attempts to form an adequate basis for an average response time. In addition to presenting the average response time, we calculated the maximum and minimum response times to understand the different frameworks' performance further.  The thesis shows some benefits in response time when running an Eclipse Arrowhead framework local cloud instead of using a remote service such as Amazon Web Services. Average response time decreased by 17.5 times while running an Eclipse Arrowhead framework local cloud.Maximum and minimum response times decreased by 1.9 and 134 times, respectively.

The fourth industrial revolution is the latest revolution that has emerged within the industrial sector. The concept has become more known in recent years and with the different technologies it brings to the companies, it creates a race around the world for companies in order to be among the first to implement the new technologies. With the growing interest in industry 4.0 and the implementation of the new technologies, it has created a need to rethink on how to be successful in this transformation. To be successful in implementing industry 4.0 it is important to involve all the different aspects of a company’s supply chain. This qualitative study aims to investigate how industry 4.0 affects the digital transformation at a large manufacturing company in Sweden. The thesis includes five different technologies within industry 4.0: Internet of things, the cloud, simulations, autonomous robots and big data and analytics. The five technologies are then investigated on how they affect the digital transformation of the chosen company. The results of the findings shows that industry 4.0 has an affect on the digital transformation of the company after it was implemented. However, the results also shows that some technologies have had a greater impact to the digital transformation then others, but there isn´t one technology that has not affected the transformation at all. Additionally, the results shows that the part of digital transformation that is affected the most from industry 4.0 is the changes it creates in the value creation of the company. This thesis aims to create a better understanding about industry 4.0 and how it affects the digital transformation of a large manufacturing company.

Background: Historically, industrial revolutions enabled societal shifts in conjunction with technological advancements. The currently ongoing industrial revolution is the fourth, namely Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 related technologies require a high level of integration to improve processes and yield more efficient flows of information, physical and financial assets. This integration happens within and between GPNs, which comprise of globally fragmented points of economic activities, including manufacturing activities. New technologies advance these GPNs, causing a qualitative shift, meaning where and how production and consumption activities are changing. The idea of Industry 4.0 is still within its infancy, where the study of Industry 4.0 drivers and barriers for MNEs remains unexplored. Industry 4.0 is in the process of transforming how industries operate with access to new advanced technologies. These technologies can affect GPNs and potentially influence related business decisions regarding offshoring and reshoring decisions in their globalisation strategies. In relation to Industry 4.0 drivers and barriers, this was already investigated for SMEs, leading to the purpose of this study. Purpose: This study investigates the influence of Industry 4.0 on the motivation of MNEs regarding offshoring and reshoring strategies within a global supply chain context. Method: This is a qualitative study, that explores this field through the experiences of industry experts of MNEs. Hence, the study takes a relativistic and social constructionist stance in terms of ontology and epistemology, to inquire into this topic through gathering and comparing in depth experiences. Furthermore, gathered data was analysed through a thematic analysis approach. Conclusion: The result of the study shows that Industry 4.0 is emerging as a comprehensive concept that goes beyond just the technologies, drivers, and barriers. Based on our findings, this is referred to as a value network, replacing the contemporary view on GPNs. Hence, this value network is emerging as its own globalisation strategy that directly influences the motivations for MNEs to offshore and reshore.

The next technological revolution, Industry 4.0, is envisioned as a digitally connected ecosystem where machines and gadgets are driven by artificial intelligence. By 2025, more than 75 billion devices are projected to serve this revolution. Many of which are to be integrated into the fabrics of everyday life in the form of smart wireless sensors. Still, two major challenges should be addressed to realize truly wireless and wearable sensors. First, the sensors should be flexible and stretchable, allowing for comfortable wearing. Second, the electronics should scavenge the energy it requires entirely from the environment, thus, eliminating the need for batteries, which are bulky, create ecological problems, etc. By addressing these two challenges, this dissertation paves the way for truly wearable sensors. The first part of the dissertation introduces a biocompatible magnetic skin with exceptional physical properties. It is highly-flexible, breathable, durable, and realizable in any desired shape and color. Attached to the skin of a user, the magnetic skin itself does not require any wiring, allowing to place the electronics and delicate components of the wireless sensor in a convenient nearby location to track the magnetic field produced by the magnetic skin. To demonstrate the performance of the magnetic skin, wearable systems are implemented as an assistive technology for severe quadriplegics, a touchless control solution for eliminating cross contaminations, and for monitoring blinking and eye movement for sleep laboratories. The second part of the dissertation is about wirelessly powering wireless sensors. In doing so, radio frequency (RF) rectifiers are a bottleneck, especially for ambient RF energy harvesting. Therefore, two RF rectifiers are introduced in standard CMOS technologies. The first architecture utilizes double-sided diodes to reduce the reverse leakage current, thus achieving a high dynamic range of 6.7 dB, -19.2 dBm sensitivity, and 86% efficiency. The second rectifier implements a dual-mode technique to lower the effective threshold voltage by 37%. Consequently, it achieves a 38% efficiency at −35 dBm input power and a 10.1 dB dynamic range while maintaining the same efficiency and sensitivity. Ultimately, combining these wireless powering techniques with the magnetic skin allows for truly wireless and wearable solutions.