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The global trend in manufacturing has shifted from a manufacturing-centric process toward a user-centric process. This has resulted in a shorter lifespan and a high product replacement rate of any consumer product. Germany has introduced the concept of Industry Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) to convert manufacturing processes and mechanisms into cyber-physical systems (CPS). Digital factory, being the first step into CPS and IR4.0, is being targeted as the most important evolution of the manufacturing industry. This paper defines digital factories and their differences between other similar domains such as smart factories, CPS, and virtual factories. The requirements and goals of a digital factory are explained in detail to facilitate future digital factory tool developments. Furthermore, the current challenges faced in the implementation of the digital factory are proposed to be approached by adapting an interoperable virtual reality technology. This paper emphasizes the usage of virtual reality (VR) in simulating a digital factory that aids in the decision-making and efficient operation of a manufacturing facility. Furthermore, recommendations gathered from previous studies for developing VR-based digital factory tools are also explained in detail in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2011, the Industry 4.0 initiative is a key research and development direction towards flexible production systems in Germany. The objective of the initiative is to deal with the challenge of an increased production complexity caused by various factors such as increasing global competition between companies, product variety, and individualization to meet customer needs. For this, Industry 4.0 envisions an overarching connection of information technologies with the production process, enabling smart manufacturing. Bringing current production systems to this objective will be a long transformation process, which requires a coherent migration path. The aim of this paper is to represent an exemplary production development way towards Industry 4.0 using eminent formalization approaches and standardized automation technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]