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Industrial Manufacturing strategies for distributed control and resilient, rapidly responsive and reconfigurable supply chains.

Project description

Making manufacturing more affordable, reliable and (re)usable

Is it possible to be more productive with less? It is for EU manufacturing industry. It is possible in terms of less material usage and less energy consumption. This is the aim of the EU-funded MODUL4R project. It will demonstrate reliable, maintainable, affordable, (re)usable, and changeable SME-friendly autonomous modular factories and supply chains, able to manufacture new products in low volumes and rapidly respond to unexpected events as well as the overall supply chain. Specifically, the project will develop a holistic framework applicable both to new and existing manufacturing lines to achieve flexibility, rapid responsiveness, and sustainability. It will focus on supply chain resilience, modular technologies, simulation and human-centred technologies and upskilling.

Objective

EU manufacturing is constantly becoming “more productive with less”, both in terms of material usage and energy consumption. The dynamics of global markets demand shorter product lifecycles and higher product variety, impacted by an increased volatility in demand. Traditional manufacturing systems are unsuitable to meet the new “think small” paradigm. They enable flexibility but at high operational complexity and for high volume operations to get lower cost production. To realise resilient factories and supply chains, it is mandatory to reduce complexity and cost of plug & produce modular manufacturing.
MODUL4R envisions reliable, maintainable, affordable, (re)usable, and changeable SME-friendly autonomous modular factories and supply chains, able to manufacture new product in low-volumes and rapidly respond to unexpected events as well as the overall supply chain. MODUL4R proposes a holistic framework applicable both to new and existing manufacturing lines to achieve flexibility, rapid responsiveness, and sustainability. MODUL4R will be demonstrated in specialized mould manufacturing for the automotive sector, CPPS for flexible & modular assembly of PCBs, and tools manufacturing for the aerospace.
MODUL4R focuses on 4 pillars, offering HW and SW components:
Pillar 1: Resilience against changes in customer and societal demands and disruption on the supply chain
Pillar 2: Modular technologies for flexible manufacturing operations
Pillar 3: Simulation and interfaces to the Industrial Metaverse
Pillar 4: Human centred technologies and upskilling
The impact of MODUL4R for the EU Manufacturing industry, but also the society itself, can be summarised as follows: (i) Process ramp-up time (>20%), (ii) Speed in product shifting (>29%), (iii) Yield & CpK (>12% & >21%), (iv) OEE (>21%), (v) Part cost reduction (>15%) with over 41 MEUR ROI for the consortium, (vi) 408 new jobs, and (viii) help industry to reduce Energy consumption (>30%) through Automation of processes (>25%).

Coordinator

FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG EV
Net EU contribution
€ 735 912,50
Address
HANSASTRASSE 27C
80686 Munchen
Germany

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Region
Bayern Oberbayern München, Kreisfreie Stadt
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost
€ 735 912,50

Participants (18)

Partners (1)