"The vision of I-RAMP³ is to enable the European industry towards smart manufacturing systems in conventional production. The project aims at creating innovative solutions in order to improve the competitiveness for this industry sector. This goal will be reached by a new concept for fast and optimized ramp-up and operation of production lines with heterogeneous devices. By this, significant reduction of time and efforts during the setup and re-configuration of production will be reached. At the same time, production costs will be reduced by increasing the efficiency of manu-facturing.This challenge will be tackled by the introduction of the so called NETDEVs. This new kind of agent-based production devices is equipped with standardized interfaces and standardized communication protocols as well as self-descriptive capabilities. Furthermore, NETDEVs are able to optimize themselves to varying setup of production and production conditions by negotiating with each other. A plug-in concept of different models allow for easy extension of NETDEVs for maintenance and re-use purposes. By revealing hidden features I-RAMP³ technology is able to multiply the usability of conventional devices.The I-RAMP³ concept covers also new approaches for the smart introduction of intelligent sensors and actuators as they play a significant role in future smart factories. Such systems will be equipped with standardized interfaces and advanced communication skills in order to improve plug&work.The holistic concept of I-RAMP³ for enabling future smart factories is completed by the introduction of knowledge-based modules for Manufacturing Execution Systems. The additional features of the I-RAMP³ approach allow for increasing flexibility and fault-tolerance during production.Having I-RAMP³ technology available, a significant step towards plug&produce technology as well as better modularity, maintainability and reusability will be done."