Abstract
The current economic crisis is making new demands on manufacturing industry, in particular, in terms of the flexibility and efficiency of production processes. This requires production and administrative processes to be meshed with each other by means of IT systems to optimise the use and capacity utilisation of machines and lines but also to be able to respond rapidly to wrong developments in production and thus to minimise adverse impacts on the business. The future scenario of the "smart factory" represents the zenith of this development. The factory can be modified and expanded at will, combines all components from different manufacturers and enables them to take on context-related tasks autonomously. Integrated user interfaces will still be required at most for basic functionalities. The complex control operations will run wirelessly and ad hoc via mobile terminals such as PDAs or smartphones. The comnination of IoT, and Big Data optimisation is bringing about huge opportunities. these processes are not just limited to manufacturing, anywhere a supply chain environment exists can benefit from information provided by linked devices and access to big data to inform their decision support. Building a smart factory with smart assets at its core means reaching those desired new levels of productivity and efficiency. It means smart products that leverage advanced traceability, connectivity and intelligence. For businesses, it means being able to address the talent crunch through more autonomous. In a Smart Factory, machinery and equipment will have the ability to improve processes through self-optimization and autonomous decision-making.