Deloitte Smart Factory: Next Generation Ecosystem Transformation

9 May 2025 - ID G00828007 - 11 min read
By Mark McDonald
Transformation is a team sport. Transformation solutions have their greatest impact and value when they span multiple solutions and providers. The Smart Factory by Deloitte @ Wichita is an example that product leaders can use in structuring their own next generation ecosystems.
Deloitte is a global professional services firm with more than 460,000 associates and a revenue of $67.2 billion in fiscal year 2024.1 Deloitte works with a set of strong ecosystems and alliances that support a range of activities, including joint go-to-market, preintegration of solutions and assets, and co-development of new offerings and client solutions.

  • Company Name: The Smart Factory by Deloitte
  • Industry: Manufacturing
  • Location: Wichita, Kansas, United States
  • Revenue: Deloitte, $67.2 billion (2024)
  • Employees: Deloitte, 460,000 (2024)
Deloitte actively collaborates with many of the world’s leading technology providers to guide clients through this rapid pace of business change. These alliances extend to more than 150 major technology providers, government agencies, research, trade and educational institutions. It has a sophisticated and advanced ecosystem and alliance strategy. One of the elements of that strategy is its Smart Factory ecosystem for manufacturing supported by a dynamically-curated constellation of organizations.

Case Overview

The Smart Factory by Deloitte is in a 60,000-square-foot building located in Wichita, Kansas.2 Launched in June 2022, The Smart Factory brings to life the potential of Industry 4.0 and end-to-end digital transformations in the manufacturing industry. The Smart Factory is a high-touch environment connecting digital, physical and experimental perspectives. It also has a public service mission to empower science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) educational opportunities.
Problem
  • The criticality of technology to business competitiveness requires assembling the capabilities of multiple providers and their solutions.
  • The pace of business change and technology innovation requires enterprises to look beyond current solutions and into the capabilities needed for future success. Enterprises need a place to interactively explore the future of the industry.
  • The challenge is determining whether the providers you need can effectively work together to address enterprise business outcomes.
Actions
  • The Smart Factory by Deloitte embodies an ecosystem of technology, academic and service partners focused on innovation in manufacturing.
  • The Smart Factory provides a facility for enterprises and providers to explore their potential future through an active manufacturing operation using the latest technology and processes.
Results
  • The Smart Factory is an evolving and dynamically curated set of 18 organizations collaborating within The Smart Factory, from major multi-billion-dollar companies like Amazon Web Services (AWS) to small early-stage startups like Chooch.
  • Deloitte uses The Smart Factory as a space to convene and engage a diverse ecosystem of partners, an active manufacturing operation and a technology demonstrator. It is the focus of this case study.

The Challenges of Modern Ecosystems and Alliances

The nature of high-tech ecosystems and alliances is changing. An alliance used to be between a services and software provider organized largely around sales and go-to-market concerns. Over the past few years, relationships have grown more numerous, taken on greater complexity and expanded to cover most value streams. This is the scope of a next-generation ecosystem.
Next-generation ecosystems present unique challenges to services and software providers. The Deloitte Smart Factory illustrates proven practices for addressing these challenges, including:
  • Attracting, curating and engaging multiple high-tech companies, ranging from large, well-established firms to early-stage startups.
  • Aligning and organizing ecosystem partners around individual client opportunities without creating conflict, while keeping the ecosystem focused on client value.
  • Managing multiple ecosystem partners, their interactions and relationships with each other, particularly when ecosystem partners may view each other as competitors.
  • Demonstrating the tangible business value of a combined solution in a complex client environment that engages enterprise leaders and buyers, thereby building their confidence to invest.
  • Expanding the ecosystem’s mission beyond sales to include co-developing solutions, demonstrating breakthrough innovation and delivering back to the community.

Smart Factory by the Numbers

“We believe that the future of manufacturing is software-defined, and we are bringing that to life at the experience center,” said Tim Gaus, Smart Manufacturing business leader and principal at Deloitte. As of January 2025, The Smart Factory has hosted more than 8,000 visitors from 250 companies. Twenty percent of those companies have made multiple visits to the center. Every organization in the ecosystem has the right to invite companies to visit The Smart Factory, and about 30% of the visits are initiated and delivered independently from Deloitte.

Curating for Collaboration and Commitment

Manufacturing is a complex sector with solutions that span multiple technologies and operations. “The Smart Factory involves multiple solutions coming together to illustrate the realities of a transformational future,” said Gaus. He continued, “We work with our partners broadly across multiple touchpoints. Then, when a client issue presents itself, we look to solve it jointly.”
Deloitte curates its ecosystem partners, taking a unique tiered approach. Participation levels are based on commitments to contribute solutions, assets and financial support to The Smart Factory. Since its launch in June 2022, the Factory has evolved its ecosystem based on changing client and market needs. The current levels of collaborators are:
  • Founding members, who make the largest commitment, are Deloitte, Wichita State University, AWS, Infor, SAP and Siemens.
  • Builder member firms, who make a smaller commitment, are Check Point Software Technologies, Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, ServiceNow and Verizon Business.
  • Participant members, who are mostly early-stage and startup companies, such as Aatmunn, Canary, Chooch, Dragos, Elenco, HighByte and Parsable.

Unlike a typical joint marketing-oriented alliance, Smart Factory members commit to collaboration by contributing products, services and development resources to address enterprise customer needs. Members also commit financial resources to The Smart Factory. Gaus comments, “The financial commitment changes the nature of the collaboration as it attracts organizations who are serious about working with each other and focused on a need to get a return on that upfront investment.”

Deloitte’s Role in the Smart Factory

The Smart Factory by Deloitte is a purposefully chosen name. “Smart” signifies a focus on the potential of software and information-driven manufacturing. Initially, “By Deloitte” was not included in the name of the center. Leaders made this choice to signify that this was a center for working and collaboration, rather than a demo center of a single company. Refining the name to The Smart Factory by Deloitte provided just enough branding to help set people’s expectations.

Deloitte is the ecosystem orchestrator for The Smart Factory. They curate and evolve the membership, striving to lead the way in connecting technological insights with innovative strategies and acting as data-driven, forward-thinking advisors to their clients. Deloitte convenes members to focus on client issues, inviting them to participate in developing solutions. Relationships among the organizations are flexible and do not require Deloitte’s involvement. Members come together, host clients and make joint investments independently. “It is a unique approach,” observed Brian Armstrong, Global Alliance Director at Siemens Digital Industries Software.
“Deloitte does not always lead or must lead in client interactions. In some cases, for regulatory reasons, they cannot lead. Deloitte and the ecosystem members have greater flexibility than traditional teaming relationships which tend to be one-to-one-focused,” added Dan Robinson, WW Partner Development Manager ER&I at AWS. He concluded, “It is a true ecosystem, not in the concept of hub and spoke, but one that is interconnected among the members.”

AWS and Siemens Share Their Experiences

An ecosystem is only as strong as its members. AWS and Siemens, both founding members, shared their experiences working in The Smart Factory ecosystem.
AWS serves an integral role by providing the technology architecture and infrastructure necessary to achieve the promise of Industry 4.0 operations. AWS’s technology and seamless integration enable The Smart Factory @ Wichita’s machinery to communicate from machine-to-machine and to platforms, allowing for an integrated “factory floor” that is agile and informed.3
“AWS has moved to an industry focus model,” commented Dan Robinson. “We see ourselves winning through joint investment in client transformation. The Smart Factory broadens our business by working with enterprise customers to co-develop solutions and their value propositions in the Factory.” Robinson continued, “We have a joint plan and quality business reviews together, and we use holistic measures including the number of solutions that enter the market, the number of joint accounts we work on and how well we leverage The Smart Factory.”
Nishita Henry, Deloitte’s chief commercial officer for its Amazon relationship, pointed out that The Smart Factory is part of a broader strategic alliance relationship. She stated, “We win through our joint investment in our customers. For example, both AWS and Deloitte have committed to invest more than $1 billion dollars over the next five years to accelerate digital transformations, implement GenAI, and build industry and sector-specific solutions.”
Siemens, the global technology and manufacturing company, is a founding member in The Smart Factory. “Smart Factory is an extension of our Siemens Xcelerator strategy,” according to Brian Armstrong (see Case Study: A Path to Digital Ecosystem Transformation (Siemens)). Siemens has 3,000 square feet of dedicated space in The Smart Factory. Not only does Siemens field solutions there, but its technologies are also used in the center’s operations.
Armstrong continues, “This center is unique and cutting edge in its approach. Our strategic alliance with Deloitte, The Smart Factory and the relationships with the other ecosystem members is fluid and adaptable, including joint funding mechanisms for growth opportunities. This is one of the few facilities that is cross-industry, allowing Siemens to demonstrate technologies in either green or brownfield settings in any industry.”

Building STEM Skills in Underresourced Communities

Smart Factory’s mission goes beyond exploring commercial opportunities. Building future STEM skills in manufacturing among underresourced communities is one of its purpose goals. “We call it the Believers program. Believers in the sense that students who have access to this education can believe in their future, their future in manufacturing and believers in STEM jobs,” according to Michael Gretczko, Commercial Growth leader, Innovation and Smart Factory leader and Education Champion.
The Smart Factory includes an end-to-end working production line, producing and distributing robotics kits to more than 143 schools across the country. Educators use these kits to teach manufacturing, programming and other tech skills. At the end of 2024, more than 3,100 kits had been distributed, reaching over 12,000 students in just over two years. In addition, through its association with Wichita State University, professors and students work with The Smart Factory to learn, test their ideas and participate in paid internship programs. Through all of these efforts, Deloitte and its Smart Factory ecosystem help build the workforce of the future.

The Smart Factory Embodies an Advanced Ecosystem

The Smart Factory is many things: an advanced innovation and manufacturing center, a demonstration of software-defined manufacturing’s future, a site for positive community impact and a place that brings together a unique ecosystem of collaborators. Siemens’ Armstrong summarizes the impact of The Smart Factory ecosystem, “Manufacturing transformation has a long buy cycle. In The Smart Factory, the ecosystem does much of the prepurchase collaboration to create examples of integrated solutions. The Smart Factory experience helps bring deals to closure. This brings transformation to life faster and deepens client commitment.”
Key lessons learned in building The Smart Factory included:
  • Taking a broad perspective to collaborate with companies working the entirety of a solution. Rather than focusing on a tech solution, the center adopted a multidisciplinary approach across technology and technology partners, as well as non-technology-related concerns such as tax, sustainability, cybersecurity and regulatory.
  • Enterprise leaders were interested in engaging with a range of tech providers. This led The Smart Factory to involve a diverse set of collaborators, including established and startup companies providing hardware, software, data and other capabilities.
  • Teaming flexibly by replacing bilateral relationships with true ecosystem plays and common areas of interest. This broadens the addressable market while deepening the power of potential solutions.
  • Being dynamic by constantly evolving solutions, collaborators, technologies and specialized resources to move as fast as, and be a little ahead of, the state of the market.
  • Committing to mutual success through client leads, visits, financial investments and collaborative efforts within the center.
The Smart Factory’s ability to physically bring together multiple companies, solutions and expertise is a major benefit. Enterprise clients know that solutions require multiparty solutions, as no single asset or solution can deliver full value. Deloitte’s Gaus concluded, “At The Smart Factory, together we tell the story of the future of software-defined manufacturing. That requires more trust and commitment to the market and the future of manufacturing.”

Evidence

Based on interviews and materials provided by Deloitte, AWS and Siemens held in January 2025.
1 Deloitte Reports FY2024 Revenue, Deloitte.
2 What Is the Smart Factory?, Deloitte.
3 AWS Delivers on the Promise of Industry 4.0 at The Smart Factory @ Wichita, AWS for Industries.