The Smart Factory Web aims to form a network of smart factories with flexible adaptation of production capabilities and sharing of resources and assets to improve order fulfillment. Key questions are: How can we connect factories to the Smart Factory Web and exchange data reliably? How can we provide the information securely at the right granularity to authorized partners? How can production capabilities be adapted quickly and efficiently in response to orders?

In the real world, installed machines come from different machine suppliers that are equipped with different products from different component suppliers. Challenge for manufacturer X (component supplier) to access the data of his delivered product X.Current barriers to implementing collaborative business models:Lack of trustLack of corporationLack of scalabilityLack of business modelLack of framework for digital intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship