As a result of changing customer expectations, Flemish companies in the manufacturing industry are under enormous pressure. In order to be able to supply customer-specific products with high quality in a very short time at a globally competitive price, one needs a flexible production device that is controlled and supported by streamlined processes. A new generation of flexible automation technologies is available industrially. These allow to produce small series with short lead times and high quality requirements meaningfully, flexibly and cost-effectively. Despite the availability of these suitable automation tools, the concrete actions initiated by the innovation followers within this theme are very limited. This makes these companies difficult to remain competitive. This project aims to contribute to encouraging the innovation followers to deploy the available automation technologies. The manufacturing industry has about 11,200 companies. The broad target group has 1,030 of these companies with an employment between 10 and 200 employees. The real target group of innovation followers is estimated at 600 companies, with a combined employment of approximately 58,000 employees and a total turnover of around 17.2 billion.