A helping hand for manufacturing service support
Supply chains in the European manufacturing industry rely heavily on various external services such as maintenance, logistics, packaging, modernisation and quality control. However, there is a major challenge to bridging the true industry needs with these outsourced services. The EU-funded project 'Innovation, coordination and collaboration in service driven manufacturing supply chains' (Incoco-S) aimed to streamline manufacturing systems by developing methods that improve production systems by integrating and synchronising different support services into supply chains. To achieve this, Incoco-S developed a framework with interdependent business processes and information sharing, coupled with performance indicators to assess service providers. Team members integrated sensor systems to facilitate remote connectivity and synchronisation of decision support systems. In addition, the project encouraged innovation and learning within stakeholders' networks using collaboration tools, professional development and training. Incoco-S focused on linking small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the European manufacturing industry and Eastern European countries including Russia within the system. This helped elaborate new reference standards for services in supply chains and enhance competitiveness, as well as pinpoint the requirements of industrial service providers and their customers. The latter was accomplished through industry-wide surveys and case studies. Having successfully outlined key requirements of industrial service providers as well as their customers, one project priority led to the emergence of a new service cluster regarding retrofit and logistics services. A very important accomplishment for the project involved the establishment of the Incoco-S reference model (IRM). This helped define the overall framework effectively, covering processes across services integrated into business cases or provided by different industry partners. The manufacturing industry will undoubtedly benefit from this radical streamlining and new systems.
