Theoretical aspects of factory and manufacturing processes configuration and engineering

In this paper the fundamentals of product configuration methods, technologies and systems in the product design and sales activities are presented. Based on the industrial paradigm "Factory is a product" it is shown, how the methods and functionalities of product configuration and engineering are migrated to an innovative approach aiming at configuring and engineering the factories and their corresponding manufacturing processes. Therefore a motivation scenario and the architecture have been conceived, consisting of the actual state-of-the-art digital tools for factory, equipment and process planning. This architecture has been enhanced to build-up the dynamic configuration knowledge through an automated workflow, using both automated simulation and optimisation tools.