Work in the DIGICOR project covered the full range from understanding user’s requirements, building the platform, and engaging the community, to enabling sustainability beyond the end of the project.
The Requirements & Business Models work package focused on understanding the problem and the needs of end-users. Current practices in supply chain collaboration were analyzed to identify the process and technology gaps to be filled. End-user requirements were gathered from inside and outside the consortium. Service concepts and business models for the platform and individual services were developed, with multiple operating scenarios modelled in detail.
The Community, Use Cases & Continuous Validation work package connected with the internal community of industrial cluster members and with external developers and potential users, involving them continuously in meetings throughout the project. Internal and external use cases were identified and feedback on the DIGICOR approach was collected in discussions, and the integration of a tool provided by an external partner was organized.
In the Architecture & System Specification work package, functional and performance requirements on the DIGICOR tools and platform were derived and the technical specification of the platform architecture was prepared. Based on this, the Middleware & Supportive Tools work package implemented the cloud platform core infrastructure and management interfaces, considering input from the Tools work package, which implemented a base set of business services. This was done in an iterative process with multiple software releases. In the Governance & Knowledge Protection work package, governance rules were formalized and implemented to support policy enforcement in the platform.
In the Validation & Demonstration work package, the DIGICOR platform was evaluated against requirements and end-user expectations based on trial and demonstration results. Following a trials plan with test procedures, a test campaign was performed and demonstration workshops with end-users were held in Germany and the UK. In an extensive simulation study of the aerospace use case, the operational and economic benefits of the platform were assessed.
The Exploitation & Dissemination work package prepared the groundwork for long-term impact of the project results by establishing suitable channels. Standardization aspects were considered and the exploitation strategy for the way ahead after the end of the project was defined.
For all this, the Project Management work package provided process and infrastructure support.
The main project results are:
• A digital collaboration platform including services and tools for call-for-tenders creation, collaboration team creation, and collaboration management, with governance definition and enforcement
• Services for connecting shop floor real-time data sources to the platform, and tools using these for monitoring the status of collaborative production, for asset monitoring and production planning
• Governance rules and procedures for collaboration and knowledge protection models embedded in the platform
• Business models for operating the platform
The project results were disseminated to the public at large via the DIGICOR website, newsletters and social media; across the scientific community through almost two dozen publications; via workshops to the DIGICOR community that was established; and also through direct involvement with relevant stakeholders and initiatives on the European level such as EFFRA.
Exploitation of the DIGICOR platform is planned in the aerospace domain, with the Hanse Aerospace association providing the DIGICOR platform to their members; also, selected tools and services are planned to be exploited as part of the Sematronix SMECluster. The industrial partners have developed individual exploitation activities. The integration of DIGICOR in the eFactory initiative opens up further venues for innovation based on the project results.
