​Flexible, distributed manufacturing is one of the hallmarks of the Industry 4.0 movement, with its promise of modular and reconfigurable production lines that will enable mass customization of products to meet individual customers' needs. CEA-List leverages its Papyrus platform, a unique multi-purpose modeling and simulation environment, to address this need for flexibility. For Industry 4.0 scenarios, Papyrus can be used to model different aspects of a production system from different viewpoints, for example.

CEA-List researchers recently contributed their experience digitizing factories to the EIT Manufacturing CanvAAS project. They used Papyrus to develop a solution to model and automate the deployment of digital interfaces between the different components of a production line, a prerequisite to designing connected, interoperable factories.

CEA-List researchers built on the developments completed for the CanvAAS project to create a plant reconfiguration toolbox industrial companies can use to simulate different reconfiguration strategies before implementing them in the physical plant. The toolbox, created for the European DIMOFAC project led by CEA-Liten, includes software developed by CEA-List to assist users in creating functional digital twins of production lines. The methodology is currently being tested and validated on six production lines at facilities operated by the project's partner companies. Ultimately, the goals are to reduce the time it takes to reconfigure a production line by more than 20% and lower total production costs by 15%. Efforts to standardize digital twins, both at module and production-line levels, have brought these ambitious targets within reach.