  The roll out of 5G has been mainly characterized by its distinct support for
vertical industries, especially manufacturing. Leveraging synergies among these
two worlds, namely production facilities and network systems, is a fundamental
aspect to enable flexibility and economic viability in future factories. This
work highlights the potential for intelligent networking and advanced machine
learning-based solutions in 5G-and-beyond systems in the context of Industry
4.0 and flexible manufacturing. The intersection thereof allows to create
versatile machines and dynamic communication networks that can adapt to changes
in the manufacturing process, factory layout and communication environment,
supporting real-time interaction between humans, machines, and systems. We
present a vision and corresponding framework by introducing the network-aware
and production-aware principles, outlining results achieved in this context and
summarizing them into three key use cases. Finally, we discuss a selection of
remaining open challenges in private networks as well as give an outlook on
future 6G research directions.
