Towards synchronization-oriented manufacturing planning and control for Industry 4.0 and beyond

Benefiting from the marriage of just-in-time (JIT) and computer integrated manufacturing (CIM), a series of manufacturing planning and control (MPC) systems has been introduced for contemporary production and operations management. However, the increasing requirements for customized and personalized products and services, together with the acceleration of the socio-economic environment in the age of Industry 4.0, forced manufacturers to re-evaluate their current MPC strategies that mainly emphasize time, cost and quality priorities. Industry 4.0 presents a solid ambition for transforming to a digital, data-driven and interconnected manufacturing industry centred around cyber-physical convergence. Although the relevance of Industry 4.0 technologies' disruptions on operations management has been acknowledged, a significant gap in the evolution of the logic and design of MPC systems has been observed. The requirements of on-demand products and services with enhanced flexibility, resilience, sustainability and humanitarianism in this new industrial revolution call for innovations of MPC architectures and approaches. This paper first summarizes the evolution of MPC systems with enabling technologies and the changing business climate at that time. To explore innovative MPC that complies with the increasing economic, social and environmental requirements, the concept of synchronization-oriented MPC with four principles is proposed. Following the principles, a general framework for the synchronization-oriented MPC with enhanced economic, social and environmental benefits is developed. This work potentially provides insights into innovative MPC in the age of Industry 4.0 and even Industry 5.0.