3D SIMULATION OF A YOGURT FILLING MACHINE USING GRAFCET STUDIO AND FACTORY IO: REALIZATION OF INDUSTRY 4.0

Manufacturing systems, enterprises and academic institutions worldwide are implementing Industry 4.0 (IR4.0). By integrating the services and equipment, IR4.0 develops autonomous systems that manage industrial operations and exchange real-time data in real time. This study includes a simulation of an existing production system using the GRAFCET Studio software. To realize the concept of a 3D smart factory, the GRAFCET programming language was used and connected to the Factory IO software. The simulation can accurately replicate the filling, scanning and removing processes in an actual yogurt filling system. A virtual factory was designed and developed using the IO Factory software to clarify the workflow and simplify the modification of the production line. This virtual factory better enables the identification of areas for optimization, improving also efficiency and productivity. A comparison between the simulated and the actual system results shows that the simulated results are approximately 90% accurate. In addition, some improvements are proposed to enhance the existing system’s efficiency. The improvements involved the testing of the system under different conditions to identify shortcomings and modify the design accordingly.