Manufacturing as a Service: Technologies for customised, flexible, and decentralised production on demand (Made in Europe Partnership) (RIA)

Manufacturing as a Service (MaaS) is a distributed system of production in which resources (including data and software) are offered as services, allowing manufacturers to access distributed providers to implement their manufacturing processes. The servitisation of manufacturing resources contributes significantly to production flexibility and responsiveness, enabling production on demand for many product categories. Suppliers of manufacturing systems and of integration technologies design and offer interoperable services in close partnership with manufacturing companies, while other providers in the value chain can offer additional services. Secure, real-time data exchange between the companies involved enables quick response times.

This topic aims at further developing and integrating the technologies needed for the successful implementation of MaaS allowing to manufacture “on demand” a large choice of customised products, with high flexibility and short lead time, by using distributed facilities as a service and exploiting unused production capacities, also by rapid re-purposing of manufacturing machines. The objective will be achieved through platforms for fast data exchange and seamless, data-driven, standards-based automation of inter-company processes beyond the factory boundaries.

Integration with digital design, development of design libraries and workflow templates, and advanced technologies such as digital twins, real-time AI-based decision support systems, and next-generation Manufacturing Execution Systems should also be considered where appropriate, with the objective to optimise the entire life-cycle of the product in terms of circularity, sustainability and reusability, using product life cycle assessments whenever appropriate.

Interoperability is a core requirement for MaaS; for this reason, research will build on existing standards or contribute to standardization where relevant, taking also into account the contributions of upcoming EU initiatives like the Digital Product Passport or the Manufacturing Data Spaces.

Results should be demonstrated through at least two realistic use cases, based on different supply chains or industry sectors.

Proposals should explain how the proposed approach contributes to the competitiveness of industry and the sustainability and circularity of production and logistics, through measurable targets.

Proposals submitted under this topic should include a business case and exploitation strategy, as outlined in the introduction to this Destination.

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership “Made in Europe”.