Abstract
The global industry is currently facing a growing increase in the competitiveness that forces companies to adopt and develop new strategies and methods of production. Therefore, one of the most relevant challenges in manufacturing engineering is innovatively integrating Product, Process and Factory dimensions and life cycles, in a holistic approach, from design to recycling/disposal and reuse. The challenge faced here is the synchronization and simultaneous generation of all three-domain models by integrating manufacturing engineering knowledge into the early stage of the modelling and planning processes. The next generation of factories has to be modular, scalable, flexible, open, agile and knowledge-based in order to be able to adapt, in real time, to the continuously changing market demands, technology options and regulations. Therefore, integration, flexibility and efficiency requirements and the ability to simulate the production life cycle of a factory play a crucial role in decreasing ramp-up and design times. Furthermore they play a crucial role in improving the performance in the evaluation and reconfiguration of new or existing facilities, in supporting management decisions and providing tools that can guarantee real-time performance monitoring. Therefore, it is necessary to research and implement the underlying models and ideas during the foundation stage of a new conceptual framework, which is designed to be implemented in the next generation of factories. This will be supported by suitable Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and digital infrastructures and should lay down the foundations for future applications in this research area the industrial paradigm of "Factory as a Product". In line with the context presented here, we propose the development of factory templates to address the design and operation practices throughout the entire life cycle of the factory. Different dimensions of the factory templates are presented in this paper; they cover the design and creation of the factory, its remodelling and even the disassembly and recycling stages. This entire study takes into account relevant factors such as costs, quality, time, flexibility, environmental and social issues and energy efficiency. Throughout the article, different kinds of models are presented, which describe and adjust the structure of the analysis, design and development of a factory integration project that helps provide a formal analysis of the system. Furthermore, templates integrating the factory's response to internal and external disturbances will also be developed.

Abstract
Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) are self-driven vehicles used to transport material between workstations in the shop floor without the help of an operator, although they can also be applied in security and exploration. They are widely used in material handling systems and flexible manufacturing systems, where production orders are constantly changing. Today, and due to the constant development of technology, sophisticated machinery is increasingly available, thus enabling manufacturing firms to achieve significant process and setup time reductions. With this development, enterprises are encouraged to leave mass production approaches and start adopting small productions lot sizes, leading to constant changes in the production operation's sequences as well as changes in the factory layout. As a consequence of the development of technology, products started to spend a big percentage of time in the queue line or being transported from one workstation/storage to another. With the introduction of AGVs production process flexibility may increase, which, in many productions processes, is still below the expectations due to the used transportation system (ex: conveyors). At the same time, with the AGVs it is possible, to decrease transportations times and costs. In this article, we will study by means of simulation, the impact of the use of an AGV transportation based system in an industrial coating application. The AGV will be responsible for transporting the parts from the system's entrance to the workstations. With this, flexibility in the production process will increase, which will be reflected in system's productivity. © 2010 IFAC.

Abstract
Industrial managers are in the expectation that the new generation factories bring more competitiveness to the manufacturing companies through innovative approaches, methods and tools that support the factory planning process. The concept of "factory as a product" perceives the factory as a complex long life product introducing design advantages for factory planning and optimization, seeking to improve quality, reduce ramp-up, product delivery and overall reduce time and costs. In order to attain these objectives, there is an urgent need for an innovative and suitable Virtual Factory Framework to structure the development of new generation factories. © 2010 IFAC.

Abstract

Abstract
Design and production of small series for specific customer target groups in collaborative networks can help companies to increase their competitiveness. This paper aims to describe a new framework of services for collaborative networking for on-demand productions. After describing the business processes that need to be supported by innovative tools for partner search and collaborative production planning, we describe the developed services and how they are integrated to ease the communication between different activities. © 2012 International Federation for Information Processing.

Abstract
In order to address the market trends especially footwear companies are now forced to address the market and especially the individual customer with increased attention concerning the fulfillment of specific requirements. In that context, consumer needs and expectations of specific target groups such as diabetic persons are posing challenging opportunities. Reality has shown that the production of shoes for patients with diabetic foot is quite different from traditional footwear production. This occurs because each shoe has to be fully adapted for each patient and in accordance with a set of requirements prescribed by the podiatrist. This reality raises several procedural and information related constraints in the way the orthopedic manufacturer has to deal with the customer demand. Framed in this goal, the present work specifically addresses the information infrastructure support required for the diabetic foot patient's prescription process by proposing an overall approach based on web-based tools and innovative integration of technological solutions. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of CENTERIS/SCIKA - Association for Promotion and Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge