# The Future of Factories: Different Trends
## 6 Building Blocks of a Factory of the Future  
After the analysis of each paradigm, we derive a reference framework for the realization of the digital twin model. Figure 8 reports the analyzed paradigms as well as the contribution to the realization of the factory of the future. The results highlight new features on different levels: IoT technologies are the core system for real-time data analysis and smart sensing and perception. This layer serves others layer as a data producer. Virtual models of the Digital Factory can benefit from the real-time data collected from the shop floor to enable virtual modeling of the real factory simulation and verification of the production processes. On the Digital Factory side, the digitalization of the intra-factory level opens up a new form of virtualization through the adoption of a 3D model-driven production (CAD), Augmented reality (AR), and Virtual Reality.  
Conversely, the IoT plays a key role also for the realization of the Cmfg. Shifting from the intra-factory to the inter-factory levels where factories' capabilities are offered as a service, IoT enables a multi-model abstraction of factories' assets to govern the digital factory operations. In the Cmfg, each manufacturing resource is abstracted and exposed as a Service according to the principles of Cloud Computing, enabling new forms of collaboration. Collaborative production, tracking materials, and shared production processes are enabled by the implementation of Cmfg platforms. As discussed previously, Cmfg is promoting the enablement of a new form of manufacturing processes, from which the concept of Service emerges. Hard manufacturing resources are abstracted in order to be offered and traded on Cmfg platforms as services. These platforms have different deployment models and enable collaboration on a different scale. Private Cloud refers to a Cloud infrastructure of exclusive usage of a single manufacturer. This option is suitable to benefit from the advantages of Cloud computing without offering services to external actors. On the contrary, Public Cloud is the deployment model enabling the shares of services. Public Cmfg infrastructure can be accessed by consumers to acquire and utilize a variety of services. These services can be in the form of software, platforms, or hardware. This deployment model is the most promising to the enablement of a new form of collaborative manufacturing process since its possible to open up services at an inter-factory level. Hybrid Cloud is a mixed model between public and private modes. As an example, a hybrid Cloud enables factory federation. Multiple factories can agree on sharing common infrastructure and build an exclusive platform on top of it where they execute their manufacturing process. This model opens up the concept of federated Cloud, in which companies organize their own process on the Cloud without actually offering services to the external entities. This form of collaboration is restricted at factory levels without going on public services. Meanwhile, there are multiples challenges to be addressed in order to realize a complete architecture for the digital-twin. Model accuracy and fidelity require a high and complete synchronization between virtual and real shop floor. This requires each entity of the shop floor to be mapped in the virtual space. As seen previously, this requires a high degree of interoperability between system entities, which is not always possible due to the high heterogeneity of technologies nowadays deployed on the shop floor and due to lack of standards. The role of the data in the digital twin model must be studied. New trends in Big Data and Deep Learning must be taken into account in order to maximize model simulations and optimization of design processes, but also for predicting failures and maximize the production processes. In this sense, models for smart analysis and prediction for manufacturing processes must also be studied in relation to computing capabilities enabled by the Cmfg.