Periodic Reporting for period 1 - R3GROUP (Reslient Rapid ReconfiGurable pROdUction Process chains)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-01-01 bis 2024-06-30
Rapid reconfigurability strategies for resilient production chains
Unpredictable events such as COVID-19 can disrupt supply chains and cause damages to the manufacturing sector. Rapid reconfigurability can provide resilience. The EU-funded R3GROUP project will develop and demonstrate resilience strategies for reconfiguration. The project will rely on reconfigurability principles to develop technologies along five pillars and will release an AAS-enabled platform for horizontal and vertical integrability for reconfigurability, follow the reconfigurable machine tool concept to develop production tools and technologies, and use multi-level digital twins to deploy a digital toolkit supporting rapid evaluation of reconfiguration impacts. The project will integrate innovative tools to capture the trigger for reconfiguration and perform multi-level monitoring, control and quality assessment to mitigate the reconfiguration impact.
The project will carry out industrial demonstrators in diverse manufacturing sectors (automotive, fabricated metal products, rubber and plastics, wearing apparel, home appliances) facing various reconfiguration issues (scale up or down, introduction of new suppliers, accommodation of multiple product variants, resilience to unforeseen events), engaging end-users operating with different business models and on different positions in the value chain (OEM, Tier 1). R3GROUP will develop human-centred solutions and put special focus on reskilling to support the adoption of novel technologies.
Unpredictable events such as COVID-19 can disrupt supply chains and cause damages to the manufacturing sector. Rapid reconfigurability can provide resilience. The EU-funded R3GROUP project will develop and demonstrate resilience strategies for reconfiguration. The project will rely on reconfigurability principles to develop technologies along five pillars and will release an AAS-enabled platform for horizontal and vertical integrability for reconfigurability, follow the reconfigurable machine tool concept to develop production tools and technologies, and use multi-level digital twins to deploy a digital toolkit supporting rapid evaluation of reconfiguration impacts. The project will integrate innovative tools to capture the trigger for reconfiguration and perform multi-level monitoring, control and quality assessment to mitigate the reconfiguration impact.
The project will carry out industrial demonstrators in diverse manufacturing sectors (automotive, fabricated metal products, rubber and plastics, wearing apparel, home appliances) facing various reconfiguration issues (scale up or down, introduction of new suppliers, accommodation of multiple product variants, resilience to unforeseen events), engaging end-users operating with different business models and on different positions in the value chain (OEM, Tier 1). R3GROUP will develop human-centred solutions and put special focus on reskilling to support the adoption of novel technologies.
(progress towards objectives from M1 to M18)
O1. Establish an end-to-end digital pipeline linking the production steps vertically and horizontally, by adopting the DIMOFAC platform, tailored for reconfigurability-fostering developments, under the RAMI 4.0 framework. Ιncorporate provisions for interoperability with legacy systems and existing data spaces reference architectures, building blocks and common toolboxes to support secure B2B data exchange and exploitation. Interfacing with machines will be supported by standardized protocols.
Hardware and software architecture has been finalized for all pilots and confirmed with all relevant partners. Requirements for extension of functionalities of the DIMOFAC platform, along with the AAS modelling requirements have been defined. Definition of standardized approaches to achieve interoperability between the platform and individual developments is performed. Preliminary implementation of AAS models and the R3GROUP platform has started in 2/5 pilots
Completion Level 70%
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O2. Develop digital tools fostering reconfigurability. Digital Twins (DTs) of production processes will be developed, by using an integrated machine-process-workpiece modelling concept to enable rapid exploration of design space and quantification of the impact of the reconfiguration in the production. Dedicated, in-line monitoring and control systems will close the loop with the manufacturing processes, providing corrective actions when a process drifts away from optimal and mitigating the impact of reconfiguration in process quality, thereby reducing ramp-up time.
Digital Twin architectures have been set up for all production processes and assets included in the project. DTs are examined at multiple levels (product-process-machine-production line) according to the needs of each application. Implementation of DTs is progressing well and preliminary results are already presented, along with functional prototypes. Monitoring architectures have been defined for all pilots. Link between monitored data and DTs have been identified.
Completion Level 40%
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O3. Implement tools to support rapid production requalification, by deploying in-line quality assurance modules, linked with the Product Manufacturing Information (PMI) of the part, through standardized interfaces that can support the automated requalification of the production.
The definition of the requirements of the modular QA system has been performed and the detailed design of the system has started.
Completion Level 35%
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O4. Integrate user experience in the reconfiguration process through bespoke UX developments that will interface with the DTs and QA modules and thus will reduce the respective skills barrier, enhance acceptance of Industry 4.0 enabling technologies and enable them to be used by operators, apart from experienced engineers. Adaptive digital work instruction tools to the shop floor will be deployed.
The needs of end users have been identified through surveys, along with the specifications in terms of visualization media, etc. The first prototype wireframes of the interfaces have been generated and are pending validation from end users to start the implementation.
Completion Level 25%
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O5. Integrate knowledge from the whole value chain to support strategic reconfiguration choices, by developing tools that can extract knowledge from the downstream and upstream levels of the production process within the value chain.
Architectures and methodologies have been setup for the virtual collaborative environments, and the first prototypes have been presented. The requirements and use cases for the supply chain Digital Twins have been defined and the model libraries are being generated and tailored for each use case. Tools for capturing weak signals are being developed, aggregating data from several open sources. The methodology for extraction of information from these data has been defined and implementation has started. An architecture for high-level, strategic decision-making tools has been defined.
Completion Level 50%
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O6. Integrate flexible intra-process logistic modules, supported by reconfiguration tools. Dedicated tools for automatic task (re)scheduling and (re)allocation will be developed and integrated, linked with the adaptive digital work instructions to the operators, as well as automatic, real-time material/product (re)routing algorithms, ensuring seamless transition of the intra-logistics steps, according to the reconfiguration actions.
The scope and requirements for the (re)scheduling and (re)allocation tools have been defined. The needs of each pilot have been modelled and mapped to specific optimization problems and the suitable algorithms for optimization are investigated. The link with the digital work instructions has been clearly defined
Completion Level 25%
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O7. Demonstrate the project approach in 5 industrial pilot lines at a TRL7 maturity level and validate through specific reconfigurability metrics
A reconfigurability assessment framework based on existing approaches identified in literature, modified and expanded to be able to be generalized to multiple production scenarios has been defined. Pre-assessment on each pilot case has been performed. Mechanisms for transfer of developments between lab-scale and industrial-scale are being defined. Preliminary integration and testing of some developments in the actual environment of the pilots has started
Completion Level 25%
O1. Establish an end-to-end digital pipeline linking the production steps vertically and horizontally, by adopting the DIMOFAC platform, tailored for reconfigurability-fostering developments, under the RAMI 4.0 framework. Ιncorporate provisions for interoperability with legacy systems and existing data spaces reference architectures, building blocks and common toolboxes to support secure B2B data exchange and exploitation. Interfacing with machines will be supported by standardized protocols.
Hardware and software architecture has been finalized for all pilots and confirmed with all relevant partners. Requirements for extension of functionalities of the DIMOFAC platform, along with the AAS modelling requirements have been defined. Definition of standardized approaches to achieve interoperability between the platform and individual developments is performed. Preliminary implementation of AAS models and the R3GROUP platform has started in 2/5 pilots
Completion Level 70%
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O2. Develop digital tools fostering reconfigurability. Digital Twins (DTs) of production processes will be developed, by using an integrated machine-process-workpiece modelling concept to enable rapid exploration of design space and quantification of the impact of the reconfiguration in the production. Dedicated, in-line monitoring and control systems will close the loop with the manufacturing processes, providing corrective actions when a process drifts away from optimal and mitigating the impact of reconfiguration in process quality, thereby reducing ramp-up time.
Digital Twin architectures have been set up for all production processes and assets included in the project. DTs are examined at multiple levels (product-process-machine-production line) according to the needs of each application. Implementation of DTs is progressing well and preliminary results are already presented, along with functional prototypes. Monitoring architectures have been defined for all pilots. Link between monitored data and DTs have been identified.
Completion Level 40%
------------------------------------------------------------------
O3. Implement tools to support rapid production requalification, by deploying in-line quality assurance modules, linked with the Product Manufacturing Information (PMI) of the part, through standardized interfaces that can support the automated requalification of the production.
The definition of the requirements of the modular QA system has been performed and the detailed design of the system has started.
Completion Level 35%
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O4. Integrate user experience in the reconfiguration process through bespoke UX developments that will interface with the DTs and QA modules and thus will reduce the respective skills barrier, enhance acceptance of Industry 4.0 enabling technologies and enable them to be used by operators, apart from experienced engineers. Adaptive digital work instruction tools to the shop floor will be deployed.
The needs of end users have been identified through surveys, along with the specifications in terms of visualization media, etc. The first prototype wireframes of the interfaces have been generated and are pending validation from end users to start the implementation.
Completion Level 25%
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O5. Integrate knowledge from the whole value chain to support strategic reconfiguration choices, by developing tools that can extract knowledge from the downstream and upstream levels of the production process within the value chain.
Architectures and methodologies have been setup for the virtual collaborative environments, and the first prototypes have been presented. The requirements and use cases for the supply chain Digital Twins have been defined and the model libraries are being generated and tailored for each use case. Tools for capturing weak signals are being developed, aggregating data from several open sources. The methodology for extraction of information from these data has been defined and implementation has started. An architecture for high-level, strategic decision-making tools has been defined.
Completion Level 50%
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O6. Integrate flexible intra-process logistic modules, supported by reconfiguration tools. Dedicated tools for automatic task (re)scheduling and (re)allocation will be developed and integrated, linked with the adaptive digital work instructions to the operators, as well as automatic, real-time material/product (re)routing algorithms, ensuring seamless transition of the intra-logistics steps, according to the reconfiguration actions.
The scope and requirements for the (re)scheduling and (re)allocation tools have been defined. The needs of each pilot have been modelled and mapped to specific optimization problems and the suitable algorithms for optimization are investigated. The link with the digital work instructions has been clearly defined
Completion Level 25%
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O7. Demonstrate the project approach in 5 industrial pilot lines at a TRL7 maturity level and validate through specific reconfigurability metrics
A reconfigurability assessment framework based on existing approaches identified in literature, modified and expanded to be able to be generalized to multiple production scenarios has been defined. Pre-assessment on each pilot case has been performed. Mechanisms for transfer of developments between lab-scale and industrial-scale are being defined. Preliminary integration and testing of some developments in the actual environment of the pilots has started
Completion Level 25%