Inside the Smart Factory – White Paper

Connecting data, machines, people and processes – delivering the next generation of manufacturing

Increasingly, customers and the market expect more from manufacturers and the factories that are the center of their delivery model: more connection, more adaptability, more responsiveness.

Today’s factories must enable the manufacturer to deliver in a world where radically shortening production cycles and a high degree of product variation and personalization are fast becoming prerequisites. Customers want more models and variants, specific to their individual usage profile and requirements, now. Customers have zero tolerance for quality issues and will immediately go to the competition if these are encountered.

Factories must increasingly become more customer-centric, delivering products that do more and meet better individual needs, while driving new user experiences. Production environments must be balanced to support a production model that delivers intelligent and appropriate customization on basic uniform product design: this is the key to driving the ‘mass customization’ reality.

Through new levels of communication at every level across the factory and the manufacturing value chain, manufacturers will be able to collaborate better and more effectively; they will also be able to respond to competitive pressures, shortening product lifecycles, and rising demand for product and service personalization.