Dark Factory: lights out production in the manufacturing industry
Fully automated factories that run day and night without staff: the dark factory is closer than ever. What can Dutch manufacturing companies learn from this?
The manufacturing industry is facing a major change. Where people, machines and factories used to be inextricably linked, we are now seeing the rise of the Dark Factory: fully automated production locations where, in principle, no light is needed, because there are no more employees present.
A dark factory, also known as lights-out manufacturing, is a production location that runs autonomously. Machines, sensors and software control the chain from raw material to end product. Inventory management, quality control and maintenance are largely automated, driven by real-time data and machine learning algorithms. The core: far-reaching digitization, integration between ERP/MES and machine data, and a solid data platform as a foundation. As a result, the role of people is shifting to design, process improvement and supervision.
What does this mean for Dutch manufacturing companies?
The lesson is not that everyone should be 100% lights-out tomorrow. See the dark factory as a guide. The motives are recognisable: persistent staff shortages, pressure on margins, the need for predictability and consistent quality. By working smarter with data and AI, you can produce more scalable, with less variety and less dependence on schedules and availability. The goal is not fewer people, but more value per employee and higher delivery reliability.
At the same time, it requires realism. Many organizations are struggling with fragmented data, disconnected machines and AI initiatives without a process context. Success comes step by step: start with a single source of truth for operational and machine data; make critical machines “connected”; and translate insights directly into actions. Then you can start thinking about dynamic capacity planning, predictive maintenance and automated quality controls.
Along with Frank watching we wrote an extensive article about this development, the opportunities and the challenges it poses.
Read the full article that we published on Frankwatching below:
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