The Paperless Factory: From Document Driven Factories to Model Driven Factories

Digital transformation, smart factories, Industrie 4.0, and cyber-physical systems define the 4
^th
industrial revolution. These topics are widely discussed and are regarded with a high significance for enterprises all over the globe. Paperless factories however, are still unspecified in literature and enterprises face a challenge in finding a guideline in how to implement paperless factories. In this paper, we specify the characteristics of a paperless factory, the differentiation to a smart factory and propose a guideline for transitioning a document-based factory organization and control to a model-based one. The guideline is implemented in two teaching modules. These modules are the content of seminars, workshops, and consultation projects for the board of management, production supervisors, project leaders, and external consultants who are in charge of leading paper-based factories to partly or fully paperless factories.