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Content archived on 2024-05-29

Knowledge Based Customized Services for Traditional Manufacturing Sectors Provided by a Network of High Tech SMEs

Final Report Summary - KOBAS (Knowledge based customized services for traditional manufacturing sectors provided by a network of high-tech SMEs)

In order to cover the increasing needs of flexibility, manufacturing machines grow more and more complex. The greater integration of the machine's performance and its related process parameters becomes a crucial requirement which is a fact that leads the user of the machine to encounter difficulties grasping and controlling it. Task planning, task simulation, maintenance, configuration, training, and so on, grow complex; therefore, new competencies and greater knowledge of the machine's process parameters and its performance as well as their interaction, are required.

The objective of the project was to promote a network of Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) capable of providing Knowledge based customised services (KOBAS) which services constitute knowledge based customised solutions and they were developed thanks to the implemented methodologies and tools of this project, for a specific machine, which aimed to enhance the machine's performance in several ways.

The KOBAS project aimed to provide a breakthrough in the current practices regarding the use of manufacturing machines by developing a set of generic tools of new conception meant to enable the quick customisation of software solutions. These solutions meant to provide, on the one hand, an advanced task and process planning and on the other hand, machine maintenance, training as well as management support. The solutions lied on techniques such as virtual reality, 3D simulation, knowledge based system and finite element analysis and they were developed, combined as well as optimised in terms of their interaction thanks to a new brand of innovative technologies which brand constituted the main object of the KOBAS project.

The approach ought to be flexible, adaptable, scalable as well as correspond to the needs of a wide range of manufacturing centres for a number of traditional, however, strategic industrial sectors in Europe. The offered novel solutions, regarding task and process planning, would be provided as services (customised for every manufacturing machine) for less intensive Research and development (R&D) traditional industrial sectors by a network of high-tech SMEs that would be formed during the project.

The main objectives of the project were:
- the development of a knowledge based methodologies set as well as a tools set of new conception. Accordingly, the machine's productivity and availability would be boosted. These tools are general and they are customised according to the machine and to the manufacturing sector by the network of high tech SMEs;
- the establishment of a network of high-tech SMEs that would provide and customise the tools developed for a wide range of manufacturing sectors. The network meant to foster in terms of competences and resources the growth of SMEs as well as increase their competitiveness;
- the creation of a new paradigm for the tools and services that a generic manufacturing machine ought to provide to the end user in order to be aligned with the market standards;
- the dissemination and exploitation of the project results;
- the proper training campaign for the developed methodology as well as for the basic concept of KOBAS in order to enlarge the high tech SMEs' network.
505339-2-kobas-fp6-g2.doc