Periodic Reporting for period 3 - L4MS (Logistics for Manufacturing SMEs)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2019-10-01 al 2021-03-31
Outdated intra-factory logistics are troubling manufacturing SMEs, whose logistics account for up to 50 % of total manufacturing costs. Innovations and new technological applications would tackle the production challenge, but they require strategic thinking, simulation, planning, re-skilling and access to finance. Lots of resources that most SMEs don’t have. L4MS aim was to help companies to find right expertise to lift manufacturing productivity.
The vision of L4MS was to unleash the full innovation potential of European manufacturing industry, especially SMEs and Mid-Caps by addressing their intra-factory logistics challenges. L4MS offered manufacturers and logistics companies new technology to digitalize intrafactory logistics and material flow using Industrial IoT platform OPIL (Open Platform for Innovations in Logistics) + Visual Components®. Connecting key factory equipment under one IoT platform and testing how it works virtually enabled cost-effective deployment of the solutions. OPIL components, with marketplace RAMP (Robotics and Automation Market Place) create the core outcome of the project.
Open Platform for Innovations in Logistics (OPIL) + 3D simulator reduces the setup cost and time of mobile robots by a factor of 10. This allows deployment of exceptionally small and flexible logistics solutions requiring minimum amount of infrastructure change, production downtime and even without in-house expertise, while making investment in logistics automation lucrative for manufacturing SMEs. Using OPIL and 3D simulator it is possible to conceive highly autonomous, configurable and hybrid (human-robot) logistics solutions driven by the business needs of the manufacturing SMEs.
The vision of L4MS was to unleash the full innovation potential of European manufacturing industry, especially SMEs and Mid-Caps by addressing their intra-factory logistics challenges. L4MS offered manufacturers and logistics companies new technology to digitalize intrafactory logistics and material flow using Industrial IoT platform OPIL (Open Platform for Innovations in Logistics) + Visual Components®. Connecting key factory equipment under one IoT platform and testing how it works virtually enabled cost-effective deployment of the solutions. OPIL components, with marketplace RAMP (Robotics and Automation Market Place) create the core outcome of the project.
Open Platform for Innovations in Logistics (OPIL) + 3D simulator reduces the setup cost and time of mobile robots by a factor of 10. This allows deployment of exceptionally small and flexible logistics solutions requiring minimum amount of infrastructure change, production downtime and even without in-house expertise, while making investment in logistics automation lucrative for manufacturing SMEs. Using OPIL and 3D simulator it is possible to conceive highly autonomous, configurable and hybrid (human-robot) logistics solutions driven by the business needs of the manufacturing SMEs.
To obtaining the vision of unleashing the full innovation potential of European manufacturing industry, especially SMEs and Mid-Caps by addressing their intra-factory logistics challenges L4MS implemented an ambitious program structured in three main phases:
Phase1. Setting up the structures of the ecosystem (the prototype).
Phase2. Establishing and testing the Marketplace and Platform through Cross-border Application Experiments, creating the initial critical mass (the voice of customers).
Phase 3. Incorporation of L4MS as a startup to get a self-sustained and organically growing ecosystem of regional actors (CCs, DIHs, etc.) (the launch).
The project conducted 3 Pilot Experiments: Chemi Pharm from Estonia, Muraplast from Croatia, and Engino from Cyprus, and in addition to these, 21 Application Experiments (AE), from which 10 in the 1st Open Call and 10 within the 2nd Open Call. From the 20 AEs selected in Open Calls, 12 were selected to 2nd phase and from those 6 continued to 3rd phase and thus conducted the whole smartization programme. In addition to the Open Calls, 1 AE was selected from the joint open call between AMABLE and L4MS. Each selected AE teams consisted of one manufacturing SME (the end-user) and 1-2 technology providers. Each AE was supported by Competence Centres. Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EiRs) and CTO-in-Residence (CiR) were nominated for each to support their development work.
The selected teams in the AEs have followed three phases. In Phase 1, all AEs were supported to properly define the technical and business plan for the experiment execution. In Phase 2 the most outstanding experiments had 8 months to execute them and, finally, the most relevant ones in terms of impact, had 2 additional months to help them to scale up the result of the experiments. The results from the AEs have been used to create business success stories of the project (http://www.l4ms.eu/Pilots ).
OPIL components were developed in the project by Competence Centre partners and tested within altogether 15 Pilot and Application Experiments. The development was based on open-source components, such as those available in the FIWARE ecosystem and ROS framework, which concur to fulfil different purposes of OPIL. Towards the end of the project, OPIL was published under single Open Source license (Apache2). The source code of all OPIL modules has been made publicly available on GitHub (https://github.com/ramp-eu).
In addition to the software components, training Videos were made in L4MS YouTube Channel. Also, an extensive documentation regarding OPIL was created, coordinating material from different authors/module owners and was made available on RAMP marketplace (www.RAMP.eu).
L4MS Marketplace was branded as RAMP and strategic decision was made to combine the effort of creating a sustainable, business-based Marketplace with the other projects that jointly develop RAMP. The current main projects where RAMP is tested are DIH² (www.DIH-squared.eu) and Better Factory (www.BetterFactory.eu).
Phase1. Setting up the structures of the ecosystem (the prototype).
Phase2. Establishing and testing the Marketplace and Platform through Cross-border Application Experiments, creating the initial critical mass (the voice of customers).
Phase 3. Incorporation of L4MS as a startup to get a self-sustained and organically growing ecosystem of regional actors (CCs, DIHs, etc.) (the launch).
The project conducted 3 Pilot Experiments: Chemi Pharm from Estonia, Muraplast from Croatia, and Engino from Cyprus, and in addition to these, 21 Application Experiments (AE), from which 10 in the 1st Open Call and 10 within the 2nd Open Call. From the 20 AEs selected in Open Calls, 12 were selected to 2nd phase and from those 6 continued to 3rd phase and thus conducted the whole smartization programme. In addition to the Open Calls, 1 AE was selected from the joint open call between AMABLE and L4MS. Each selected AE teams consisted of one manufacturing SME (the end-user) and 1-2 technology providers. Each AE was supported by Competence Centres. Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EiRs) and CTO-in-Residence (CiR) were nominated for each to support their development work.
The selected teams in the AEs have followed three phases. In Phase 1, all AEs were supported to properly define the technical and business plan for the experiment execution. In Phase 2 the most outstanding experiments had 8 months to execute them and, finally, the most relevant ones in terms of impact, had 2 additional months to help them to scale up the result of the experiments. The results from the AEs have been used to create business success stories of the project (http://www.l4ms.eu/Pilots ).
OPIL components were developed in the project by Competence Centre partners and tested within altogether 15 Pilot and Application Experiments. The development was based on open-source components, such as those available in the FIWARE ecosystem and ROS framework, which concur to fulfil different purposes of OPIL. Towards the end of the project, OPIL was published under single Open Source license (Apache2). The source code of all OPIL modules has been made publicly available on GitHub (https://github.com/ramp-eu).
In addition to the software components, training Videos were made in L4MS YouTube Channel. Also, an extensive documentation regarding OPIL was created, coordinating material from different authors/module owners and was made available on RAMP marketplace (www.RAMP.eu).
L4MS Marketplace was branded as RAMP and strategic decision was made to combine the effort of creating a sustainable, business-based Marketplace with the other projects that jointly develop RAMP. The current main projects where RAMP is tested are DIH² (www.DIH-squared.eu) and Better Factory (www.BetterFactory.eu).
RAMP Marketplace will provide the complete catalogue of services for the manufacturing SMEs. SMEs looking to use mobile robots and automate factory logistics will find top of the line technology suppliers and system integrators on the RAMP. RAMP development was initiated in L4MS project and it will continue in subsequent projects DIH² and Better Factory. RAMP will be a one-stop-shop, where European Manufacturing SMEs & Mid-Caps can access Digitalization services, including technical support, business mentoring and finance.
The experiments conceived in L4MS, 3 Pilots and 21 cross-border Application Experiments demonstrated highly autonomous, configurable and hybrid (human-robot) logistics solutions driven by the business needs of the manufacturing SMEs and Mid-Caps. This portfolio of cross-border experiments demonstrated the leveraging of European Structural Funds and private investment in established and emerging Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) across Europe.
For the non-selected applicants, a Smartization toolkit was created. It offers methodologies for collaboration and practical case studies that serve as inspiration for fostering collaboration between DIHs and their regional SMEs and AEs. Smartization toolkit was developed and tested with 6 DIHs and it can be replicated in other EU projects following its added value for DIHs, regions and AEs.
The experiments conceived in L4MS, 3 Pilots and 21 cross-border Application Experiments demonstrated highly autonomous, configurable and hybrid (human-robot) logistics solutions driven by the business needs of the manufacturing SMEs and Mid-Caps. This portfolio of cross-border experiments demonstrated the leveraging of European Structural Funds and private investment in established and emerging Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) across Europe.
For the non-selected applicants, a Smartization toolkit was created. It offers methodologies for collaboration and practical case studies that serve as inspiration for fostering collaboration between DIHs and their regional SMEs and AEs. Smartization toolkit was developed and tested with 6 DIHs and it can be replicated in other EU projects following its added value for DIHs, regions and AEs.