Establishing a Scalable Foundation for the Digital Factory
In 2026, our clear focus is to strengthen the Digital Factory with a more integrated, efficient, and scalable foundation. Edge.One plays a central role in this strategy, alongside the continuous development of the broader Germanedge product landscape.
Several key developments around Edge.One and the broader Germanedge portfolio are currently in focus. A major priority is the closer alignment with Logility and the creation of seamless integration across all areas of the Digital Factory.
At the same time, the redesign of the user interface for Connected Worker and Quality applications is progressing. The objective is to align all interfaces with a unified Edge.One standard, creating a consistent, modern, and intuitive platform experience. As a result, more and more applications are being consolidated under Edge.One within a single user interface.
Another strategic initiative aims to significantly reduce implementation time in production management, particularly for on-premise customers. The goal is to streamline production implementations from approximately 500 days to around 100 days. Standardization, automation, and preconfigured modules are key levers to help customers become productive much faster.
These initiatives form the foundation: integration, standardization, and acceleration. But a strong foundation alone is not enough. The next step is to make this structure tangible and operational in day-to-day production environments.
Making the Digital Factory Tangible, Intelligent, and Operational
Building on this platform strategy, the focus now shifts to bringing the Digital Factory fully to life. This means enabling end-to-end demonstrations, AI-driven capabilities, and a consistent factory structure across systems.
To fully realize the potential of the Digital Factory, integration must go beyond technology alone. Current initiatives aim to make end-to-end workflows visible, enable AI-driven decision support, and establish a consistent factory structure as the backbone for scalable digital operations.
Another strategic initiative focuses on strengthening our demo capabilities and improving how we showcase end-to-end workflows — particularly in the context of Factory Zero. The goal is to provide Sales and PreSales with a more robust and reliable demonstration environment while also creating assets that support Greenfield conversations. Although this initiative has faced some challenges, it remains a key priority, as it plays a crucial role in illustrating how Digital Factory components interact in real production scenarios.
With AppCentral, the objective is to make AI-driven capabilities immediately actionable by providing a factory out-of-the-box with preconfigured solutions and agents. Customers can leverage AI agents across various use cases to address real operational challenges and achieve tangible business outcomes.
In the planning domain, a new AI feature is being prepared to provide enhanced decision support. It aligns naturally with the strategic direction of making decision processes in the Digital Factory faster and more intelligent — particularly in combination with the Logility integration.
Finally, the team is preparing the beta launch of the Factory Designer. This tool establishes a unified namespace for the Digital Factory by eliminating point-to-point (“spaghetti”) integrations across MES, QMS, ERP, and other related systems in a typical factory. Based on a standardized ISA-95 model, it enables consistent, low-effort configuration of machines and factory nodes, serving as a single source of truth for factory structure and integration.
2026: From Architecture to Impact
Taken together, these initiatives define a clear direction for 2026:
- A fully integrated platform architecture
- Accelerated implementation timelines
- AI-driven operational intelligence
- A standardized and scalable factory structure
The objective is not only to digitize processes, but to create a Digital Factory that is cohesive, intelligent, and fully operational from end to end.
If you would like to learn more about Edge.One and how the Digital Factory can help make your production more efficient, please contact our experts.