Title Investigation of Smart Factories within the scope Industry 4.0 Abstract In recent years, Smart Factories has provided a more flexible and feasible manufacturing system for companies, especially in production sectors. Especially, it has taken place in many fields, from mechanical commissioning equipment to electronic and computer technology to automation and control areas. In this study, firstly the concept of Industry 4.0 is examined and its sub-components are briefly explained. However, ‘Smart Factories’ has been examined in detail in Industry 4.0 scope. In this context, we have discussed the processes from the traditional factories to the intelligent factory evolutionary process, the intelligent factory architecture, the basic features, the life cycle, the tasks, the areas of use and the technologies that are required to create these factories. As a result of research, even though it still has some technical difficulties in practice, it is obtained that smart factories can provide automation by supporting the production equipment with robot technologies, and it can update with the help of machines or easily adapt to new environments. Nevertheless, it has been found that intelligent factories have been effectively utilized in the implementation of a sustainable manufacturing process to cope with global challenges. Editor: H. Kemal İlter, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, Turkey Received: August 19, 2018, Accepted: October 18, 2018, Published: November 10, 2018 Copyright: © 2018 IMISC Calp et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.