“…Autonomous goalformation In the context of manufacturing systems, the fractal concept is embodied in a 'factory within factory' and has various manifestations such as fractal factory (Warnecke, 1993), BFU model (Tirpak, Daniel, La Londe, & Davis, 1992), fractal layout (Montreuil, Venkatadri, & Rardin, 1999;Venkatadri, Rardin, & Montreuil, 1997), the fractal manufacturing system (FrMS) Ryu, Son, & Jung, 2003) and other fractal-like systems including the holonic manufacturing system (Van Brussel et al, 1998) and the bionic manufacturing system (Okino, 1993;Ueda, 1993). Being an organizational concept of a corporate entity, a fractal factory is characterized as an open and dynamic system which consists of quick and self-similar feedback loops (Sihn & Von Briel, 1997).…”