“…This synchronization can be empowered by digital technologies, as it is shown both by industrial practice and academic scientific research. Indeed, the topic of Digital and Virtual Factory [4,5,6,7] have been addressed by several research projects, such as METNET, SPAS, MANUVAR, EMI, EMERALS [8], VFTS [9], IRMA, DiFac [10] and Dorothy [11]. The Virtual Factory (VF) paradigm can assist a production environment by addressing various key issues like: (1) reduction of production times and material waste thanks to the analysis of virtual mock-ups, (2) development of a knowledge repository where people can find stored information in different versions, with both advisory role and support to the generation of new knowledge, (3) improvement of workers efficiency and safety through training and learning on virtual production systems, (4) creation of a collaboration network among people concurrently working on the same project in different places.…”