EU ConnectedFactories Projects For More Jobs and Better Lives

The EU Factories of the Future Program

The Factories of the Future Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) is a multi-year program under the European Horizon 2010 program with a total funding of 1.5 B Euro. Its objective is to help European manufacturing enterprises, in particular SMEs, to adapt to global competitive pressures by improving the technological base of EU manufacturing across a broad range of sectors. The PPP approach generates commitment from industry and yields tangible results. The majority of the ConnectedFactory cluster of projects are part of the Factories of the Future PPP, and support the programs goals of more jobs and better lives.

Manufacturing Challenges and Program Goals

Challenges and opportunities for manufacturing of the future include products for future needs, such as sustainable mobility, improved recycling and re-manufacturing, improved healthcare and sustainable energy.

Goals include economically sustainable manufacturing, whic implies highly efficient and productive production, resource-efficient products, high-precision production of high-performance products, as well as reconfigurable, small-scale factories in eco-systems for flexible and distributed system manufacturing.

The growth generated should bear safe and attractive workplaces, where humans and machines work interactively and share tasks through appropriate and adjustable levels of physical and cognitive automation and provide life-long development.

Environmental sustainability will be realized from reductions in energy and water consumption, reduced usage of raw materials, and a higher proportion of renewable energy resources.

Projects Report In ConnectedFactories Public Event

Early February a public meeting was held in Brussels reporting on progress of projects in the ConnectedFactoriescluster of projects, documented in more detail on the website of EFFRA, the European Factories of the Future Research Association. The majority of the projects are part of the Factories of the Future PPP.  Here we focus on a few highlights from the meeting:

SCANIA, the Swedish truck maker, held a keynote, giving their view on “The Smart Factory”. Scania considers Flexible standardized processes, connectivity, data gathering, analysis as an enabling hierarchical construct to reach a predictable future. The company considers the process is iterative. SCANIA tests promising technologies across the value chain in a Smart Factory Lab developing applications such as predictive maintenance. Hans Olofson, head of industrial IT, recommended to make sure to optimize processes first and warned not to digitize ‘waste’, that is, inefficiencies in the Lean Manufacturing speak. He further mentioned safety, cyber security, standards and competence development as ‘major challenges’.

The project PREVIEWreported on a machine learning application for injection molding processes, capable of making improvement suggestions after only two injection cycles. The system is capable of to reduce setup times to up to 50 percent, reduce waste and energy consumption up to 50 percent and improve traceability. However the extent of improvements depend strongly on the types of machines and complexity of the products made.

The project ReCaMworks on automated process and supply chain design application, to plan and reconfigure flexible, possibly modular production plants for discrete manufacturing, to reach a higher level of automation in producing smaller lot sizes. It proposes to use a modular automation approach to manufacturing execution. This approach can be compared to PackML in packaging and MTP in the chemicals and life sciences industries.

The project “Boost4.0” aims to tap in the value loss from digital transformation failure, estimated at over 600 BEUR, and the potential gross value from Big Data of 1.25 TEUR in manufacturing. The project prepares an open source industrial big data infrastructure, dubbed “European Data Space” that should provide speed, transparency, trustfulness, synchronization, and interoperability in heterogeneous systems. The project includes partners such as Industrial Data Space, Big Data Value Association and Siemens.

The Industrie 4.0 Standardization Councilof the Plattform Industrie 4.0 body announced the 3rdversion of the Industrie 4.0 standardization roadmap, to be published at the Hannover fair in April 2018. The council cooperates with the US, China, Japan, France, Italy and rest of the EU. The roadmap is a ‘discussion platform’, that is, the Council welcomes feedback from standardization bodies and users. The many topics covered include a significant portion of human related aspects, including those treated in ISO 6385 for human-centered design and usability of work systems.

The Finnish research center VTT created a methodology to assess digital maturity on six dimensions: strategy, business model, customer interface, process & organization, people & culture and information technology. The assessment is free accessible on internet after registration with an email address at https://www.digimaturity.vtt.fi

Last word

The project results are publicly available. Most have a high technology readiness, because the EU aims to get shorten the time to economic impact of the investment in research and development. It is therefore worthwhile browsing through project websites of interest. If you are interested in suggestions of projects to look at, a more detailed report on the event, please reach out to me at vdeleeuw@arcweb.com. The presentations can be downloaded from the this area on the EFFRA website.