Adaptive information technology in manufacturing

Due to the fact that manufacturing facilities live much longer than the products they have originally been designed for, adaptivity becomes one of the strategic issues in manufacturing companies. Adaptivity is defined as "characteristics to accomplish early and foresighted adjustments of the factory's structures and processes on all levels to change impulses economically" [3]. In this paper the authors describe requirements and means to enable information technology in the factory to become adaptive and changeable itself.