About Factory-X 

The Factory-X project is a cross-industry initiative led by prominent European companies with significant market potential. It is a funding project within the Manufacturing-X program and fully embraces the ideas of Manufacturing-X. The goal is to implement these ideas specifically for factory equipment manufacturers and operators.

Scheer IDS has positioned itself as a process management enabler for "Factory-X Readiness.” Additionally, its proprietary modeling software, the Scheer PAS Business Modeler, has been declared the standard for all Factory-X partner companies. Currently, there are more than 170 active modeler accounts within Factory-X.
 

Initial Situation

Although many digitalization initiatives already exist, they often stall at the pilot stage due to challenges in scaling shared data usage. Factory-X aims to tackle this problem by developing a new data infrastructure that enables secure data exchange without compromising data sovereignty. The project started on February 1, 2024, and is scheduled for completion by June 2026.

What Key Contribution Does Scheer IDS Make to the Factory-X Project?

Scheer IDS is responsible for the “Project Framework for Methods and Approaches” within subproject 1. The core task is to build and coordinate a process reference model to describe the partner companies’ use cases in terms of processes and data.

In addition to building this process reference model, the main goal of the scientific and technical subproject is to enable data interfaces between involved stakeholders or elements in a process-driven way. This represents an innovative and promising approach to achieving a central objective of the overall project: data networking among stakeholders and individual production modules.

Unified Modeling Methodology Across All Use Cases

The cloud-based process modeling tool Scheer PAS Business Modeler is used project-wide within Factory-X. It allows for rapid and intuitive graphical modeling of processes, process maps, organizational structures, and IT data structures. The Business Modeler supports collaborative work and includes methods such as BPMN (Business Process Model Notation), which is used in Factory-X.

• Easy to understand, especially from the user’s perspective
• Identification of synergies and overlaps between use cases
• Based on BPMN, extended for use in Factory-X
• Methodical support provided by Factory-X partner Scheer IDS and the August-Wilhelm Scheer Institute

The Factory-X project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action

Funding code: 13MX001ZE

Duration: 01.02.2024 – 31.07.2026