Factory of

the Future
Achieving digital excellence
in manufacturing, today
 “20 years ago, you were
Transforming required to sell a machine.
15 years ago, you were
manufacturing required to sell a machine
and automation, and now
beyond Industry 4.0 you are required to provide
A look at the pioneers who are making the factory the complete package. You
of the future a reality today must provide the machine,
but you must also provide
Far from just a concept based on longstanding aspirations of Industry 4.0, the factory of the future
the solutions to use them:
means going beyond the walls of production to transform the entire connected manufacturing
ecosystem.
properly, effectively, and for
a long time easily. The only
Where we once imagined a factory focused on the digital, robot-driven production floor, reality
has transcended the factory floor to include the entire manufacturing ecosystem—connecting way to do it is with digital
employees, processes, machines, data, and customers—far beyond what was once envisioned.
and technical solutions.”
Manufacturers have already invested $100M in smart factory initiatives, with those who have
- Carlo Scalmana,
implemented smart factories seeing 17-20% productivity gains.1 Yes, the “factory of the future”
President and CEO, Italpresse Gauss
involves machines, products, and factories. But contrary to past fears of automation and robots
replacing people, the factory of the future is actually empowering people, including:

• Manufacturing business leaders using data from hyperconnected networks to develop

customized, meaningful products and services

• Factory workers using continuous insights to predict and prevent machine failures and improve
operational effectiveness

• Customers providing real-time usage data and experiential sentiment to inform how
manufacturers innovate to support valuable experiences
 “We need to pick up and catch
people where they are, in their
environment, with their problems,
with their specific needs and out of
that, solve these issues with the help
of digitalization and digital tools.”
Empowering – Sebastian Schumann,

digital leaders
Siemens Berlin Factory

in manufacturing

Connected intelligent machines and IT systems provide enables this is Remote Monitoring. Developed for
continuous insights, enabling manufacturing leaders to the Microsoft Azure platform, Remote Monitoring
make better informed decisions with objective, up-to- enables manufacturers to make targeted improvements
date market data; manage inventory in near-real time; to business processes by getting real-time use,
and revise processes and drive new innovations to meet performance, and asset health updates from nearly
demand. Such hyperconnected networks of free-flowing anywhere, and use that data to optimize performance
data will enable manufacturers to work with shorter lead securely, anticipate problems and solutions, and boost
times, forge a tighter link between supply and demand, customer satisfaction.
develop new business models as market demand
and opportunities arise, and accelerate new product The result? Improved visibility to support proactive
introductions to market. response across the business; the ability to make
targeted improvements to business processes to save
Empowering manufacturing leaders hinges on time, money, and resources; and new business insights
supporting real-time insights, and one way Microsoft to spot trends and opportunities to advance
the business.
Connecting
specialists in new ways
across the organization
Today, immersive human-to-machine chain, and product lifecycle. What used to
collaboration and advanced analytics are be considered technologically abstract or
enabling specialists—from R&D, out of reach is now is now tangible and
to the production floor, to logistics and available, supporting advanced problem-
supply chain management—to prototype solving and reasoning with machines,
new designs faster and more affordably, simultaneous work across virtual and
build more useful products faster, physical models, and effective cross-team
and continually support meaningful collaboration on a global scale. “The introduction of HoloLens
customer experiences. In fact, 85% of
manufacturing executives expect human- Microsoft is redefining the digital twin
to our operations will empower
to-machine-centric environments to
be commonplace by 2020,2 with an
through HoloLens, which allows users
to interact with and improve full-scale
over 20,000 field service engineers
estimated 40% of operational processes models in immersive mixed reality. Now, in doing their job better and
more efficiently, and increasing
being self-healing by 2022.3 manufacturing teams can create flexible,
safe holographic training scenarios in the
One technology at the heart of this
vision is the digital twin, enabling
real world, give clients 3D prototypes to
visualize and inspect, and identify and
the availability of elevators and
manufacturers to simulate and iterate address problems before work starts. escalators makes the job safer
through the end-to-end stages of design, Processes that once took weeks can now
production, and service with a digital take days through this reduction and more fun for our people.”
representation of the plant floor, supply in physical prototyping.
– Andreas Schierenbeck,
CEO, ThyssenKrupp Elevator
Developing
a truly customer-centric
manufacturing process “The Microsoft Azure platform
makes it a lot easier for us to
deliver on our vision without
getting stuck on the individual IT
components. We can focus on our
According to Accenture, 95% of business One example of how the customer end solution and delivering real
leaders expect their company to use experience is being completely
the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) transformed is Predictive Maintenance, value to customers rather than
in the next three years4; while Gartner in which manufacturers boost
estimates that hundreds of millions of equipment reliability and stay ahead on managing the infrastructure.”
things will be represented by digital of the unexpected issues that can
twins in the next three to five years.5 easily derail production. By capturing
customer sentiment, usage, and other – Richard Beesley,
While factory workers, machines, data and analyzing it with machine- Sr. Enterprise Architect – Data Services, Rolls-Royce
processes, data, and other elements learning algorithms, manufacturers can
of production support smart factories, gain the insight to fine-tune processes
empowering transformative customer and make modifications that improve
experiences is truly at the heart of the product quality and increase customer
factory of the future. The desire to satisfaction. Going forward, IoT-driven
adapt to quickly-evolving customer data and AI will bring new levels of
demands is nothing new, except now performance insight directly from
technology trends such as AI and IoT customers for customer-driven product
are being adopted and integrated into design and faster innovation cycles.
ways that finally deliver on this real-time,
customer-centric vision.
From our factory
to your factory of “Jabil has seen at least an 80
percent accuracy rate in the
the future prediction of machine processes
that will slow down or fail.”
Through a robust technology intelligent, mixed reality, and cognitive
platform, preconfigured solutions, services by bringing together humans, – Clint Belinsky,
and longstanding experience as both machines, and AI. Second, building Vice President of Global Quality, Jabil
a services provider and manufacturer, broader ecosystems through partnerships
Microsoft is empowering humans that include telecommunications,
to capitalize on the unprecedented network, hardware, and software partners.
opportunities of the factory of the future And third, delivering a highly-flexible,
in three fundamental ways. robust software platform that allows To learn more about Microsoft Watch our Delivering Digital Excellence in Manufacturing
smart factory solutions and the - Factory of the Future & Connected Factory Solution
the hyperconnected world to operate in
First, empowering organizations to hybrid models, supporting IoT, people, growing number of manufacturers Demo our IoT Connected Factory

achieve breakthrough productivity with and services working together. innovating with them: Check out Microsoft Partner solutions on AppSource

This eBook is based on Microsoft analysis of third-party data. Sources include:

¹Capgemini: Smart Factories: How can manufacturers realize the potential of digital industrial revolution. 2017.
²Eric Schaeffer et al., Machine Dreams; Making the most of the connected industrial workforce. Accenture. February.
3
DC FutureScape: Worldwide Digital Transformation 2017 Predictions Jan 2017 Doc # US42259317 Web Conference By: Michael Versace.
4
Connected business transformation: how to unlock value from the Industrial Internet of Things. Accenture. February, 2017.
5
Gartner: Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2017. 2016