Characterization of Autonomous Production by a Stage Model

Manufacturing systems aim to optimize criteria such as resource efficiency, profitability and flexibility. Typically, these criteria form a conflict of interests. Driven by recent trends like the Digital and Biological Transformation, manufacturing systems try to overcome this conflict by heading towards autonomy. For the realization of an autonomous manufacturing system, stages of development need to be identified. Therefore, this paper evaluates different concepts for manufacturing systems (e.g. Fractal Factory, Holonic Factory, etc.) to derive characteristics for a stepwise development towards Autonomous Production. As a result, a target state and a stage model for Autonomous Production are defined.