Factory-X Simplifies Entry Into Data Spaces on the Industrial Shop Floor

Hattersheim, 1 July 2026 – With the end of the consortium phase on 30 June 2026, Factory-X showed from Hilscher’s perspective that cross-company data spaces in industry are practical and feasible. For many companies, entry into data spaces for secure and standardized data exchange had long seemed too complex. Factory-X reduced that barrier step by step.

At the start of the project, German industry faced a difficult situation. Many digitalization technologies were available. Initial implementation examples also existed. What was missing were scale effects, shared standards, and reliable trust mechanisms across company boundaries.
Outside the automotive industry in particular, strong drivers for broad collaboration were often missing. As a result, data spaces looked like an innovation cliff to many companies.

Factory-X addressed exactly this issue. The project created technical and organizational foundations for an open, federated data space in manufacturing. One central result is the MX-Port concept, which makes access to data spaces far more tangible and simplifies their integration into industrial applications.

Project results feed directly into product development at Hilscher

Hilscher contributed several of its own use cases to Factory-X. The focus was the “Information Update and Change Service” use case.

The use case covers the standardized provision and adoption of product information across the entire lifecycle. It creates transparency about the current status of industrial assets through standardized identification. It also improves software updates across the wide range of assets installed in a factory.

Hilscher supported this use case with a custom demo case. With the help of the MX-Port configuration “Leo,” project partners deploy software versions across different demo devices and across vendors. This gives companies an initial view of cross-vendor device management for meeting cybersecurity requirements in practice.

At Hilscher, the results of the “Information Update and Change Service” use case are already being used after the end of the project. They flow into an upcoming expansion of the IIoT platform netFIELD, the Shopfloor Device Manager. This gives users comprehensive management of industrial devices on the shop floor, including configuration, monitoring, vulnerability management, and update management.