The global industry is currently facing a growing increase in the competitiveness that forces companies to adopt and develop new strategies and methods of production. Therefore, one of the most relevant challenges in manufacturing engineering is innovatively integrating Product, Process and Factory dimensions and life cycles, in a holistic approach, from design to recycling/disposal and reuse. The challenge faced here is the synchronization and simultaneous generation of all three-domain models by integrating manufacturing engineering knowledge into the early stage of the modelling and planning processes. The next generation of factories has to be modular, scalable, flexible, open, agile and knowledge-based in order to be able to adapt, in real time, to the continuously changing market demands, technology options and regulations. Therefore, integration, flexibility and efficiency requirements and the ability to simulate the production life cycle of a factory play a crucial role in decreasing ramp-up and design times. Furthermore they play a crucial role in improving the performance in the evaluation and reconfiguration of new or existing facilities, in supporting management decisions and providing tools that can guarantee real-time performance monitoring. Therefore, it is necessary to research and implement the underlying models and ideas during the foundation stage of a new conceptual framework, which is designed to be implemented in the next generation of factories. This will be supported by suitable Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and digital infrastructures and should lay down the foundations for future applications in this research area the industrial paradigm of "Factory as a Product". In line with the context presented here, we propose the development of factory templates to address the design and operation practices throughout the entire life cycle of the factory. Different dimensions of the factory templates are presented in this paper; they cover the design and creation of the factory, its remodelling and even the disassembly and recycling stages. This entire study takes into account relevant factors such as costs, quality, time, flexibility, environmental and social issues and energy efficiency. Throughout the article, different kinds of models are presented, which describe and adjust the structure of the analysis, design and development of a factory integration project that helps provide a formal analysis of the system. Furthermore, templates integrating the factory's response to internal and external disturbances will also be developed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.