The manufacturing industry is entering a new digital era in which ICT technologies and collaboration applications will be integrated with traditional manufacturing practices and processes to increase flexibility and sustainability in manufacturing, mass customization, increase automation, better quality, and improve productivity. A digital factory is denned as a multi-layered integration of the information related to various activities regarding manufacturing-related resources in the factory and along the product lifecycle. A central aspect of a digital factory to enable stakeholders in the product lifecycle to collaborate using software solutions. The digital factory thus expands outside the actual company boundaries and offers the opportunity for the business and its suppliers to collaborate on business processes that affect the supply chain.
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