Industrial manufacturing usually follows rigidly programmed processes, in which individual work steps and machines are tightly scheduled. This makes production inflexible and causes problems if devices fail or unscheduled com- ponents need to be processed at short notice. At the Hannover Messe Preview on February 9, 2017, Fraunhofer developers will be presenting new software that allows each individual component to tell the machine what has to be done. By breaking away from central production planning, factories can achieve unprecedented agility and flexibility, very much in the spirit of Industrie 4.0.