The paper "Implementing Smart Factory of Industrie 4.0: An Outlook" by Shiyong Wang, Jiafu Wan, Di Li, and Chunhua Zhang explores the implementation of a smart factory as part of the fourth industrial revolution, Industrie 4.0. The authors focus on vertical integration within the factory to create a flexible and reconfigurable smart factory. They propose a framework that integrates industrial wireless networks (IWN), cloud computing, and fixed or mobile terminals with smart artifacts such as machines, products, and conveyors. The operational mechanism is described from a control engineering perspective, where smart artifacts form a self-organized system assisted by feedback and coordination blocks implemented on the cloud based on big data analytics. The paper outlines the technical features, beneficial outcomes, and a detailed design scheme for the smart factory. It concludes that the smart factory of Industrie 4.0 is achievable by leveraging existing technologies while addressing technical challenges. The authors also discuss the key aspects of Industrie 4.0, including horizontal integration through value networks, vertical integration of factory subsystems, and end-to-end digital integration of engineering processes. They highlight the differences between traditional production lines and smart factory production systems, emphasizing the flexibility, productivity, resource and energy efficiency, and transparency of the latter. The paper includes an application demonstration of a smart factory prototype at the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and addresses technical challenges such as intelligent decision-making, high-speed IWN protocols, manufacturing-specific big data analytics, system modeling, cyber security, and modularized physical artifacts.The paper "Implementing Smart Factory of Industrie 4.0: An Outlook" by Shiyong Wang, Jiafu Wan, Di Li, and Chunhua Zhang explores the implementation of a smart factory as part of the fourth industrial revolution, Industrie 4.0. The authors focus on vertical integration within the factory to create a flexible and reconfigurable smart factory. They propose a framework that integrates industrial wireless networks (IWN), cloud computing, and fixed or mobile terminals with smart artifacts such as machines, products, and conveyors. The operational mechanism is described from a control engineering perspective, where smart artifacts form a self-organized system assisted by feedback and coordination blocks implemented on the cloud based on big data analytics. The paper outlines the technical features, beneficial outcomes, and a detailed design scheme for the smart factory. It concludes that the smart factory of Industrie 4.0 is achievable by leveraging existing technologies while addressing technical challenges. The authors also discuss the key aspects of Industrie 4.0, including horizontal integration through value networks, vertical integration of factory subsystems, and end-to-end digital integration of engineering processes. They highlight the differences between traditional production lines and smart factory production systems, emphasizing the flexibility, productivity, resource and energy efficiency, and transparency of the latter. The paper includes an application demonstration of a smart factory prototype at the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and addresses technical challenges such as intelligent decision-making, high-speed IWN protocols, manufacturing-specific big data analytics, system modeling, cyber security, and modularized physical artifacts.