1. A process for operating autonomous, collaborative service-oriented automating devices (AG) of a production system at a manufacturing plant level as well as part of an enterprise IT system with service-oriented architecture, whereby the automating devices (AG) are coupled to production devices as well as to each other and offer functionalities of the automating devices and/or functionalities as service or aggregation of services, and/or ask for services or aggregation of services from automating devices (AG) of the manufacturing plant and/or of the enterprise IT system, whereby a setup of the automating devices (AG) is carried out comprising a configuration, definition of service and establishing of connections to other automating devices, whereby the behavior of the production system is based on the asynchronous exchange of service-events and service-calls with the goal of manufacturing a product according to a work plan, characterized in that the behavior of each automating device (AG) is represented by a part of a middleware envelope that is formally specified by a HLPN (High Level Petri Net) model and is controlled by internal and/or external service-events and service calls, that a service-event received by an automating device (AG) is tested, whereby if the service-event corresponds to a description of a current status of the HLPN model, the production system is transferred into a new status by updating the HLPN model as well as by synchronization of service activities, whereby if the service-event is an exception, an undocumented service-event, or an internal conflict, a decision is made in such a manner that a service-event is generated if necessary information for the solution of the decision is present, and/or that services of external components (DMS) and/or of automating devices (AG) are queried in order to make information for a concrete decision available, and that after execution of the service-event and/or service-calls as well as development of the HLPN model, the production system reaches a next status and is ready for receiving further events.