How to implement the digital factory: A practical guideline describing the state of the art in automotive, aerospace and manufacturing

In view of ever shorter product life cycles and turbulent markets, it is essential to apply new production concepts and methods. Only thus is it possible to keep up with an ever-increasing demand for faster "time-to-market". The Digital Factory is a promising approach offering help through new methods and tools. A key factor of success for the introduction of the Digital Factory is to communicate its implementation as a strategic business goal and ensure its acceptance, to provide for the complete integration of data and to let the roll-out go hand in hand with the standardization of the planning processes. The wealth of existing IT tools might obscure the fact that the central factor is and remains man and his own way of planning and designing things. Man and his approach to planning have an important impact on the planning time and planning quality, whereas, tools are only supporting this process.