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3.3 Future Factory Concepts 165
Fig. 3.4 SmartFactory KL production facility.
of smart technologies in factory environments. In the meanwhile several additional
demonstration modules have been set up showing the application of new
technologies and paradigms like Service Oriented Automation architectures,
Digital Product Memories, Plug&Play automation, Dynamic orchestration of
automated processes and the use of tablet computers in industrial environments.
3.3.3 From Technologies to Technology Concepts
Often the discussion about the IoT in the context of industry applications is
of technological nature. However, as stated before technology is only a means
to an end. Experience with the SmartFactory KL shows that instead of losing
oneself in the discussion of technical implementation details one should focus
on the application type of IoT technology. Regarding the future factory this
are basically the smart product, the smart equipment, the smart infrastructure
and the augmented operator. These concepts can be implemented using a wide
range of technology depending on the concrete scenario.
3.3.3.1 Smart products
One of the approaches to connect the different information layers of a factory
is to take advantage of the product itself as information carrier. Such a
smart product primarily stores information about its production history and can