The benefit of using the spring framework is the masterful beans management by the IOC container. Spring framework confers options to impart the IOC container to use the factory methods for creating the instances.
Types of factory methods:
1. Static factory method  : Static factory method is simply a static method that returns an instance of a class.
2. Instance factory method: These objects are created by using the bean instance.

Bellow example will help you to better understand the factory method in spring framework.
Follow bellow steps :

Step :1 Create Factory Classes

Transpost.java

package findnerd.core.ioc;
public interface Transport {

    public void getTransport();

}

Car.java

package findnerd.core.ioc;
public class Car implements Transport{

    public void getTransport(){

        System.out.println("Transport type is Car");

    }

}

Bus.java

package findnerd.core.ioc;
public class Bus implements Transport {

    public void getTransport() {

        System.out.println("Transport type is Car");

    }

}

SpringService.java

package findnerd.core.ioc;
public class SpringService {

    private static SpringService service = new SpringService();
    //Static factory method

    public static SpringService createService(){

        return service;

    }

    //Instance factory methods

    public Transport createCarInstance(){

        return new Car();

    }

    public Transport createBusInstance(){

        return new Bus();

    }

}

Step: 2 Factory Methods in Spring Configuration
Create spring-beans-ioc.xml and put bellow code.

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
        xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans


    http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.2.xsd


    http://www.springframework.org/schema/context


    http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.2.xsd">

        <context:component-scan base-package="findnerd.core.ioc"/>
        <bean id="springServiceStaticFactory" factory-method="createService"/>
        <bean id="springServiceCarInstance" factory-bean="springServiceStaticFactory" factory-method="createCarInstance"/>
        <bean id="springServiceBusInstance" factory-bean="springServiceStaticFactory" factory-method="createBusInstance"/>
    </beans>

Step: 3 Context Loader
Create SpringContextLoader.java and put bellow code.

package findnerd.core.ioc;

    import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;

    public class SpringContextLoader {
        public static void main (String args[]){
            ClassPathXmlApplicationContext applicationContext = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("findnerd/core/ioc/spring-beans-ioc.xml");
            Transport transportCar = (Transport)applicationContext.getBean("springServiceCarInstance");
        transportCar.getTransport();
            Transport transportBus = (Transport)applicationContext.getBean("springServiceBusInstance");
            transportBus.getTransport();
            applicationContext.close();
        }
    }

I hope you will understand that how to use the factory methods with spring configuration files.