Smart Factory: From concepts to operational sustainable outcomes using test-beds

Background: The concept of “Smart Factory” is a new paradigm. Past studies in literature point out several conceptual understandings of Smart Factory and their classifications. This paper answers the following scientific questions, where does the Smart Factory stand? What are its core characteristics and capabilities? What are the operational outcomes of the currently developed system? How can these pieces of equipment be integrated into an R&D methodology? Methods: Smart factory test-beds are used as a supporting case for this research work. A top-down hierarchical methodology is used to review the recent studies and analysis of the Smart Factory test-beds. The study follows these different steps 1) Literature review on the Smart factory concept on recent studies 2) Reasoning to capture the key characteristics and capabilities from the current developments 3) Experimental investigations to analyze the performances and explicit the sustainable impacts of different cases. Results: We present the Smart Factory “from the concept to operational outcomes”. The results stress: key characteristics, capabilities, influencing factors. Two case studies (literature and own investigation) illustrated the operational outcome and their sustainable impacts. Conclusions: The presented framework summarizes the current body of knowledge of the Smart Factory from review to the operational outcomes.