For a long time – and in many places still today – line production with assembly lines and fixed cycles was considered the pinnacle of rational production. It promised high, repeatable quality and cost-effective production. But in the meantime, the focus is shifting away from the mass production of a specific item to products configured individually for customers with ever shorter delivery times. In the smart factory, flexibility is the trump card. At the same time, companies need to increase their productivity and resilience in order to survive in global competition. We’ll be discussing how companies can master these challenges with our two guests in this episode, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Roman Dumitrescu, Director at Fraunhofer IEM, and Karl Lehnhoff, Director of the Segment Industrial, Scientific & Medical at EBV Elektronik. For more information around the factory of the future visit: http://ebv.com/factory-automation