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Road4FAME Final Publication released

The Road4FAME project has developed a strategic research and innovation roadmap for IT architectures and services in manufacturing. The project focused on architectures and services which facilitate agile and flexible manufacturing processes, ease interoperability in distributed manufacturing environments, support effective collaboration in context-aware enterprises, and provide the foundations for sustainable manufacturing. The key aims were to align future ICT (information and communication technology) research with the needs of European manufacturing businesses, and to provide European manufacturing businesses with a reference against which online casino they can derive innovation strategies and identify novel business opportunities. The final publication can now be downloaded here.

ICT 2015, Lisbon: Road4FAME ‘pitches’ confirmed potential for entrepreneurial activities in manufacturing IT

Networking Session ICT2015 Pciture for websiteRoad4FAME was part of the biggest annual event for Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in Europe – ICT2015. Researchers and Developers coming from all parts of Europe came together to present their projects and discuss their latest findings. This years’ conference marked a record of over 5000 participants coming from not only R&D but also politics and industry.
The Conference was opened with a keynote from Günther Oettinger, the EU-Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society. Oettinger emphasised the need for immediate action in order to keep Europe’s competitive edge on the market. Member of European Parliament, Hans-Olaf Henkel even called for a Digital Single Market driven by the European Commission. This involves creating market access for novel digital technologies such as proposed by the Road4FAME catalogue of business models.
In order to boost debate and foster exchange among European stakeholders on potential business opportunities, Road4FAME had organised a networking session at the ICT 2015.The session attracted attention from European Commission officials, academia and industry.
Selected participants pitched their ideas for business opportunities and elaborated on existing business modles and then fielded feedback and questions from the audience. The business models discussed ranged from complex product servitisation with a focus on aftermarket care to open innovation and collaboration in virtual environments to bring new ideas to the product portfolio of manufacturing companies. Finally, Road4FAME project partner Haydn Thompson presented the business model of his company THHINK Wireless Technologies Ltd, which evolves around selling self-powered sensors to install on equipment of various types.
Participants agreed that there is great potential for products and services based on ICT for manufacturing and smart components and that new business models will help to boost entrepreneurial activities on European markets.

Road4FAME Networking Session at ICT 2015 Lisbon

ICT for Manufacturing and related Business Models ict_2015_lisbon
Wednesday, 21/10/2015, Room 12, 14:50-15:35

Road4FAME organises a networking session at the ICT2015 in Lisbon (20-22 October 2015) for all stakeholders interested in ICT for manufacturing and related business models. Our group is open to everyone attending the event to participants with common or similar topical interests with whom you could develop collaborative relationships in the future. However, it is particularly targeted at participants interested in the application and realisation of new ICT technologies and the related business opportunities.
Next to networking opportunities and exchange of views, this session will feature pitches on promising business models for manufacturing from FoF and ICT projects.

Register free of charge and reserve your spot for the networking session.
Note that registration presupposes registration to the ICT2015 Conference.

Road4FAME Final Event in Harderwijk

Road4FAME held a successful final event in Harderwijk, the Netherlands at the premises of AWL TECHNIEK on 22nd to 23rd September 2015. The event was held in conjunction with the final event of I-Ramp3, a corresponding project under the FoF-scheme and attracted a total number of 70 participants from academia and industry. Road4FAME partners presented their final roadmap, business models as well as recommendations. Presentations were followed by an exhibition of demonstrators.

IMG_4143 IMG_4141

Road4FAME Results

Road4FAME identified the following eleven key ICT –solutions as very important for the European manufacturing industry:

  • Open data and system integration platform for an unstructured data environment that includes harmonised / standardised interfaces
  • Customer and demand data gathering and analysis
  •  Information technology and operational technology convergence
  • Product and service co-design with customers
  • Big data analysis and use for quality control
  • Joint Cognitive Systems for decision support (DSS)
  • Flexible production equipment and interconnections
  • Problem and context-centric display of crucial information to users
  • Engineering Platform for design/operations continuum
  • Supply chain visibility and decision assistance
  • Security solutions for collaborative networks

However, implementation of these solutions, particularly for SMEs, is hampered by a highly heterogeneous manufacturing ICT landscape and lack of interoperability and high implementation costs. At the same time the requirements from customers for flexibility, customisation and track-and-trace capability are steadily increasing.

In order to match the current gap between manufacturing needs and demands, Road4FAME recommends enhanced research efforts in the following areas:

  • Reference Architectures / Open Architectures
  • System and Information Integration Architectures
  • Data capture, storage and analysis
  • Data and information visualization techniques
  • Flexible and adaptable manufacturing
  • New algorithms for distributed processing of data and systems in close-to-real time
  • Information modelling and work domain modelling of socio-technological systems
  • New or Improved low-cost, miniaturised smart sensors
  • Interoperability and standards
  • Security strategy for companies and standards to protect the networked supply chain Confidentiality and know-how protection throughout the supply chain
  • Incorporation of psychology into ICT research
  • Applied, multidisciplinary research with large scale industrial collaboration
  • CPPS-Cyber-Physical Production Systems
  • Supporting education in the field of CPS
  • Establishing demonstrators

The Road4FAME Consortium noted another important trend; non-manufacturing companies generate a large proportion of the value chain; so called platforms such as Google, Uber and Amazon are taking over markets. In order to sustain European competitiveness a Pan-European platform is necessary to boost the adoption of emerging digital technologies. But, to get platforms up and running large and influential European companies need to be willing to commit to a common project whilst developing and supporting ecosystems of SMEs and mid-caps.

In addition, Road4FAME recommends investing in digital entrepreneurship education and programmes that foster digital skills. Within that context, management and factory floor level employees should be made aware of the need for sustainable manufacturing processes or so called ‘green’ manufacturing, addressing pressing societal challenges, e.g. climate change. Finally, Road4FAME recommends promoting social acceptance of digital manufacturing in co-operation with trade unions considering employment quality and quantity, welfare, health and privacy.

As regards the exploitation of new business opportunities, there is a need for an innovative contract framework to deal with increasingly dynamic and flexible supply chains. The legislation governing the IT sector and the internet has been built up around this sector and this may not be appropriate for manufacturing. Road4FAME sees a need for legal support specific to manufacturing applications. Increased automation and co-working between robots and humans requires a “legal by design” framework and liability issues have to be tackled with respect to potential accidents related to new ICT. A barrier to many SMEs from offering services to companies is the risk introduced from liability for lost production. Within this respect, a mechanism to provide insurance to remove some of this risk is also recommended. Finally, new service ideas based on data privacy need to be addressed with clear guidelines on data ownership, management and exploitation to provide a level playing field across Europe.

Note: All Road4FAME Public Deliverables can be accessed under resources (including fact sheets, orientation paper,press releases and presentations)

EU Member States and Regional Initiatives in Manufacturing

Member State/RegionsProgrammeFocus
AustriaBMVIT
FFG
FFG/produktion
Technological and process innovation
BelgiumMADE DIFFERENT – Factories of the futureProcess innovation
Belgium-FlandersFlanders Make
iMinds
Product & technology innovation
GermanyIndustrie 4.0Technological innovation, in particular CPS
GermanySmart Service WorldIntegration of cross sectoral value networks
Cross usage of data between different areas of daily life
GermanyAutonomik for Industrie 4.0 - Production, Products, Services in the Internet of the Futurelogistics, engineering models (i.e. decision making support schemes), working conditions (human-machine interaction, safety & security), service robotics
Germany - Ostwestfalen-Lippe It's OWLTechnological and Process Innovation for Production
Germany – Baden-Württemberg Allianz Industrie 4.0 BWSME (down to 50 employees)
DenmarkMADE – Manufacturing Academy of Denmark
GreeceRegional Operational Programme of Region of Western Greece for the Period 2014-2020Advance Materials, Nano – Technology and Microelectronics supported by ICT
SpainEstrategia Fabricacion Avanzada
Grupo Spri
Industry upgrading for economic sustainability; Manufacturing efficiency for environmental sustainability; Quality employment for social sustainability
ItalyCluster Fabbrica Intelligente CFI (Intelligent Factories Cluster)Products, Processes, Manufacturing System, Manufacturing networks
Italy - LombardiaCluster Fabbrica Intelligente Lombardia AFIL (Cluster Intelligent Factories Lombardy)Products, Processes, Manufacturing System, Manufacturing networks
FinlandMANU - Digital manufacturing technology & systems (2012-2017)
FinlandS-STEP - Smart technologies for lifecycle performance (2014-2018
FinlandSIMP - System integrated metal production (2014-2018)
FinlandS4Fleet (2015-2018)
FinlandIndustrial Internet – Business Revolution (2014-2019
FranceUsine du FuturSME's diagnostics and modernization incentives
France / Ile-de-FrancePlan “Usine du future”
Ile-de-France RIS 3 strategy
Systematic cluster “Usine du future” roadmap
Support measures targeting SMEs; Engineering of complex systems and software
NetherlandsSmart IndustryAcceleration of introduction of ICT in manufacturing and adaption of business value chains
PortugalPRODUTECH – Production Technologies Cluster
Mobilizadores
Produtech - Portal
Advanced Manufacturing Systems
United KingdomInnovate UKUK businesses
United KingdomHigh value Manufacturing CatapultBusinesses in the field of high value manufacturing. i.e. a high level of R&D intensity, leading to significant growth. Customers include large multinationals to small spin-out companies and anything in between.
United Kingdom - ScotlandAction Plan for ManufacturingDevelop Leadership and Skills; Supply Chain Capability
SwedenProduktion 2030Develop Leadership and Skills in sustainable production

For more information, please see Member States and Regional Initiatives.

 

Road4FAME EU-Consultation Meeting Digital Revolution in Europe: Converging Visions for a Smarter World

Road4FAME bannerOn 22nd May Road4FAME successfully hosted an EU-Consultation event bringing together experts from various fields of ICT, cyber-physical systems (CPS), the Internet of Things (IoT) to Factories of the Future (FoF). The full-day event explored respective visions on a smarter world that is imagined to be highly performing, progressive, energy saving, socially and environmentally sustainable, but yet competitive. See the event website for further details. Presentations are available here. Our consortium member Prof. Haydn Thompson has written a comprehensive event report, which can be downloaded here. The Road4FAME presentation can be retrieved here.

Road4FAME Business Modelling Workshop

IMG_2319 (2) (400x267)Road4FAME successfully held a business-modelling workshop in April 2015 at the premises of Atos in Madrid. The workshop concentrated on new and exciting business models, which arise from exploitation of ICT Technology and Services in manufacturing. Ahead of this workshop, the Road4FAME consortium had identified and analyzed about 100 models and conducted interviews with industrialists to identify future business opportunities. Based on this, results were categorised into 10 areas and the new business opportunities identified so far were mapped, to the trends, drivers, ICT solutions identified and recommendations made by Road4FAME. Furthermore, participants brainstormed new potential business opportunities within manufacturing more widely, identified the most promising and developed how these can be put into place operationally (identifying enablers/barriers and the necessary ICT solutions) using a business modelling canvas. In sum, a move towards servitization in manufacturing was recognized a common trend across models. See Deliverable 4.1 – Catalogue of Future Business Services and Associated Business Opportunities for more information.

Road4FAME project identifies four priority research areas for manufacturing

Road4FAME project identifies four priority research areas for manufacturing

Road4FAME  has created a press release on its recently published Road4FAME Orientation Paper. Therein, the project partners have identified four major research priorities for the manufacturing domain:

1) Real-time data acquisition and analysis
2) Network-centric communication and collaboration between organisations, humans and systems  across the entire value chain
3) Scalable cyber-physical system architectures for adaptive and smart manufacturing systems
4) Cross-cutting and non-functional challenges: interoperability standards, semantic mechanisms, datavisualization, sociotechnical issues, training andeducation, as well as cybersecurity

View the official press release here –  Road4FAME press release

 

Creating Synergies for Smart Solutions

Road4FAME partner Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum has presented the Road4FAME project, together with three other EU-funded projects in the area of cyber-physical systems (CPS) at a local event in the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The event was hosted by MicroTec Südwest -The Leading Cluster for Smart Solutions in Baden-Württemberg and comprised more than 90 participants from the IT- sector, sensor technologies, academia and public institutions. A number of high-level speakers from Bosch Sensor Tec GmbH, Software AG, EnOcean GmbH, Sick AG, Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Festo AG, IBM, DFKI – Research Center of Artificial Intelligence and FZI – Research Center for Information Technology presented their perspectives on and opportunities for CPS industry applications and business models.
In search for future IT architectures and services for manufacturing, it is evident that there is a current trend to convert factories into smart environments, hence the creation of Cyber-Physical Production Systems incorporating the entire manufacturing process.
Topics such as IT security, Big Data and awareness building for multidisciplinary cooperation were identified as key for the further development of CPS systems. Even though technical developments and ICT-based integration services are well advanced, there is a present implementation problem of CPS in real-life environments. In light of this current implementation lack, the need for increasing synergies between the areas of software, hardware and microelectronics has to be addressed in order to generate smart products and services.
The Road4FAME consortium will take on this spirit for its EU-Consultation event in May, where different communities – Internet of Things – CPS and Factories of the Future (FoF) will be invited. More info will soon be provided by the Road4FAME consortium.

Main Roadmapping Workshop and Orientation Paper

IMG_2280 (600x450)Recently, the Road4FAME project held a very successful roadmapping workshop in London. The consortium came together with a number of 40 chosen experts from academia and industry, to progress on its roadmap for IT architectures and services in manufacturing. The workshop incorporated four parallel roadmapping sessions involving the four Road4FAME scenarios: virtual enterprise, green enterprise, high-volume production enterprise and the manufacturing as a service (MaaS) enterprise.
Results from previous workshops were prioritised and, were needed, added across the four scenarios. Subsequently, ICT solutions comprising architectures and services, necessary research, technology and resources were gathered across the four groups. In a next step, these ICT solutions had been further explored and defined, the most pressing one’s were chosen, characterised against priotisation criteria and linkages to drivers and research topics were established. At the end, each group presented one ICT solution with an elevator pitch. Meanwhile, the consortium is in the course of evaluating all results in order to compile a final report on this workshop.
We thank all participating experts for their valuable inputs and comments that help us building up a full-fledged roadmap and corresponding recommendations. A big thank you also goes to Road4FAME partner IfM, who delivered an excellent job in facilitating this workshop.
In conjunction with the workshop, the consortium also finished an Orientation Paper requested by the European Commission. It is yet to be considered as a working document, however the challenges and research recommendations identified therein serve as a basis