Key Issues for Digital Factory Designing and Planning: A Survey

Digital Factory (DF) planning is the key of intelligent factory construction, where intelligent production technologies of big data analysis, cloud computing, blockchain, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, 5G, Time Sensitive Network (TSN), Digital Twin (DT), additive manufacturing are included. By applying the modern techniques, DF performs great advantages on the aspects of product lifecycle management, enterprise resource planning, operation management, supply chain management, real-time database construction, advanced process control, as well as the new technologies of distributed control system and fieldbus control system. This article delivers a review of key issues of DF top-level design and planning from the aspects of networking, precision, automation and digitalization. Solutions are explored based on 5G, TSN and DT advanced technologies, literately and practically. Additionally, the article describes the method and application of efficient big data comprehensive solution. Therefore, this study contributes valuable decision-making support for DF applications.