“Industrial manufacturing usually follows rigidly programmed processes, in which individual work steps and machines are tightly scheduled. This makes production inflexible and causes problems if devices fail or unscheduled com- ponents need to be processed at short notice. At the Hannover Messe Preview on February 9, 2017, Fraunhofer developers will be presenting new software that allows each individual component to tell the machine what has to be done. By breaking away from central production planning, factories can achieve unprecedented agility and flexibility, very much in the spirit of Industrie 4.0. In today’s factories, components such as engine blocks or blanks for a turbine blade are processed in linked processes by multiple machines. The systems turn and mill each component and repeatedly measure it automatically as they do so. A timetable precisely defines the sequence of work steps and the machines and devices required to carry them out. However, such timetables work through the individual steps in rigid sequences. If machines fail or other components have to be prioritized because of customer requests, the manufacturer has to laboriously reschedule production or retool the machines. This costs time and money.”