Manufacturing 320,000 cars in 2018 , BMW ’ s Regensburg Plant in Germany has been described by the World Economic Forum as a ‘ factory of the future ’ at the forefront of industry 4.0 .

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At the plant , the company harnesses over 3,000 connected machines , robots and autonomous transport systems linked via an IoT platform . It also utilises 3D printing and data analytics within its operations , seeing a decrease of 80 % for deployment time and a 5 % reduction for quality issues .

“ A smart factory is characterised by a smart way of using new technologies , ( and ) new ideas to get innovations on a next level ,” says Frank Bachmann , BMW ’ s Regensburg plant manager . www . manufacturingglobal . com