The shift in customer demand from low cost to customized products has a strong influence on production concepts. To combine the advantages of mass production such as economies of scale and the requirements of customization, modularity has proven to be a solution. However, production systems stay focused on specific products, thus are difficult to adapt to new product variants and changes on the shop floor. In order to ensure the subsequent adaptability of production plants, the paradigm of service-oriented architecture allows to instantiate flexible Cyber-Physical Production Modules (CPPM) which offer their capabilities as services. Based on specifications of the product, production processes and the corresponding services of the CPPMs can be selected.

This paper analyses the challenges of the production paradigm of a product-driven factory, which offers production-as-a-service. Focus of the paper is the proposition of a new approach for the matching and description of product and CPPMs. Selection criteria on a meta level such as cost, quality, production time and resource efficiency are also discussed. The paper takes the Production Planning and Scheduling (PPS) into account and how it has to be adapted for a flexible, changeable factory of the future.