Smart Factory Web – a network of intelligent factories

Brief description of the project

The vision of the Smart Factory Web is to create a network of intelligent factories in order to improve the order fulfilment of the participating companies. This is to be achieved by aligning capacities across production sites, firstly by flexibly adapting production capabilities and secondly by sharing resources, assets and inventory.
 

Project goals

The main objectives are:

• The flexible adaptation of production capabilities and the sharing of resources and assets in a network of intelligent factories
• Providing the technical basis for new business models, with the flexible use of production resources across production sites
• Achieve factory to factory interoperability based on industrial standards such as OPC UA and AutomationML as well as concepts of the management shell of Platform Industry 4.0
• Secure data and service integration in cross-site application scenarios with plug&work functions for devices, machines and data analysis software
  
  

Project results

Added value of the Smart Factory Web:

• Business:
  Design and validation of new business models with flexible allocation of production resources across production sites. Operators can efficiently manage their factory resources by using mashup, simulation and data analysis to gain an overview of all factories. For SMEs, this opens up new opportunities as they can process orders flexibly.
• Economical:
  The costs for integration, installation and commissioning of IT systems, modules and machines are reduced. The equipment utilisation is increased.
• Socially:
  Building up company ecosystems with new job profiles and cooperation between engineers.