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3.3 Future Factory Concepts 163
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The network aspect offers open communication standards reaching down
to the sensor-actuator level of today’s factories and the distribution of control
intelligence into equipment, infrastructure and products themselves. From a
visionary point of view every item in future factories will be equipped with
a computing and communication core. Communication allows delivering a
detailed and actual virtual representation of the current state of the complete
factory.
Standardized communication interfaces and distributed control intelligence
within a factory internet lead to the fact that fine grained and actual
information about products, equipment, technological and even organizational
processes will basically be available at any time and everywhere within the
factory. While this is miles away from today’s state of the art in factories
the mere availability of information does not create any added value by itself.
The availability of information is only the basis for the optimization of technological
and organizational processes. The optimization itself has to be initiated
and conducted by humans.
This consideration leads to the insight that for future factory concepts
the rather technical IoT aspects of networking and communication are only
means to an end. The added value of IoT applications emerges out of the fact
that humans can take advantage out of the availability of information and the