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10 SMT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2020 Smart Factory Implementation: How Smart Is Smart Enough? As we are moving further into the Indus- try 4.0 era, rigidity is out, and flexibility is in; stiffness is out, and agility is in; sluggishness is out, and swiftness is in. Responding to the evolving new industrial enterprise—deliver- ing customized products with flexible, mod- ular production flow at optimal economics— becomes necessary. Manufacturing companies need to develop a thorough understanding of the available technologies that can be utilized to translate business objectives into business roadmaps targeting operational excellence to produce competitive, reliable, and economical products that perform in a timely fashion in the marketplace. One of the beautiful fruits that Industry 4.0 bears is intelligent manufacturing, which, in turn, is manifested in smart factories. It was reported that about half the activities people are paid to do globally could potentially be auto- mated using technologies that exist today [1] . Yes, we need automation, yet the smart factory is not merely an automation system nor robotic operation. "Smart" comes from the utilization of technologies that are available at our dis- posal; this includes artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, analytics, big data, the internet of things (IoT), and the advanced network tech- nology (5G and higher). As the factory of the future, a smart factory is expected not only to run essentially autono- mously without human intervention, but also to learn and adapt in real-time with self-cor- recting and self-optimizing ability. Smart facto- ries lead to a production environment in which production facilities and logistics systems are SMT Prospects & Perspectives Feature Column by Dr. Jennie S. Hwang, CEO, H-TECHNOLOGIES GROUP