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To boost European competitiveness and speed the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis, Europe?s manufacturing sector must fundamentally change its attitude and approach to business. Better use of information and communication technology (ICT) offers the key to meeting the challenges by enhancing end-to-end manufacturing processes from shop floor to customer engagement and all along the supply chain.
?ICT for manufacturing? is a specific research domain which merits public investment in the design and development of software facilitating shop-floor processes and connecting enterprises to each other and to customers. The objective is to use ICT to make manufacturing more efficient and user friendly, while enabling all European enterprises, irrespective of their location or size, to find opportunities beyond their borders through innovative business models.
The contribution of ICT to the manufacturing sector has become paramount over recent years and ICT is increasingly intertwined with future manufacturing processes and involved in developing efficient business processes. However, to ensure the sustainable competitiveness of Europe's manufacturing industry, a thorough analysis is required so that R&D resources are applied most efficiently. This analysis will consider technology and business trends as well as politics, environment, and societal needs.
The European Commission therefore encouraged the launch of the ActionPlanT project and is co-funding it under the private-public partnership ?Factories of the Future? within the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).
This initiative aims to establish a vision for the role of ICT in manufacturing of the future. The ActionPlanT Vision for Manufacturing 2.0 identifies the global megatrends influencing the growth of European manufacturers and proposes new concepts for reviving the state of the European manufacturing sector. The overarching intention is to demonstrate that ICT has a major role to play in resolving some of the most crucial pinch points in European manufacturing.
The three key elements have been identified involving ICT:
1. European enterprises must bridge the gap between process- and commercially-oriented manufacturing operations by leveraging advances in the ICT world ? notably in collaboration, connectivity, mobility and intelligence.
2. European manufacturers need to appreciate and use ICT to integrate the human element ? workers and customers ? to a greater degree in their day-to-day operations and businesses.
3. ICT innovation is a fundamental success factor for future manufacturing operations in Europe ? enterprises have to be agile and swift when it comes to being innovative and applying innovation in practice.
The ActionPlanT Vision for Manufacturing 2.0 will pave the way for a road-map and strategy document which will identify, prioritize and schedule the most promising research topics in ICT for manufacturing for the next Framework Programme for Research and Innovation ? ?Horizon 2020?, covering the period 2014 to 2020.
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