One answer is provided by the principle of "Manufacturing as a Service (MaaS)." The concept of distributed manufacturing services via digital platforms or networks offers the possibility of compensating for failures in the supply chain quickly and dynamically, thus minimizing the impact of production disruptions. RAASCEMAN (Resilient and Adaptive Supply Chains for Capability-based Manufacturing as a Service Networks) brings together nine partners from six countries: German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence DFKI (coordinator, Germany), Flanders Make (Belgium), Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems & Automation University of Patras LMS Patras (Greece), French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission CEA (France), Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics Czech Technical University in Prague CIIRC CTU (Czech Republic), University of Kaiserslautern-Landau RPTU (Germany) and Netcompany Intrasoft (Luxembourg) as well as the two industrial partners, Continental Automotive Czech Republic and the Belgian SME ASKA Bike. The project will be funded by the European Commission with a total of 4.6 million euros over the next three years.
RAASCEMAN develops innovative tools that use real-time data from the supply chain to analyze potential disruptions and quantify their impact. If, for example, an impending supplier failure is detected, RAASCEMAN enables companies to find alternative manufacturing partners via a network of MaaS providers. A specially developed system evaluates the reliability of the suppliers in the network and checks the feasibility of their offers. On this basis, companies receive well-founded and feasible recommendations for action to seamlessly replace failed production parts. The adjustment of production plans is supported by AI, which ensures the continuity of production. In addition, RAASCEMAN's tools help companies create digital twins of their production and establish an advanced infrastructure for data exchange. They, therefore, make a significant contribution to the flexibility and resilience of modern production processes.
RAASCEMAN works closely with the European joint project RICAIP (Research and Innovation Centre on Advanced Industrial Production) and the research infrastructure created there. RICAIP and other national projects have already developed concepts and concrete applications for cross-site industrial production systems, which RAASCEMAN is now expanding to include the ability to react to unforeseeable disruptions. The network of experimental testbeds created in RICAIP, e.g., at the partner sites in Germany and the Czech Republic, namely those in Prague, Kaiserslautern, and Saarbrücken, will also be used to test use cases and trial demonstration scenarios.
“The capabilities and benefits of the RAASCEMAN technology will be demonstrated in our network of partner testbeds. This will better explain the use of the technology on both a technical and economic level and facilitate its transfer into real industrial environments," explains Achim Wagner, RAASCEMAN coordinator and deputy head of the Innovative Factory Systems research department at DFKI in Kaiserslautern. "The vertical integration of software systems and artificial intelligence is particularly promising - from variable product definition and flexible parameterization and control of machines to resilient supply networks and factory optimization.”
RAASCEMAN will test its ambitious solutions in two industrial application areas: the automotive sector and the bicycle industry. Five pilot plants spread across Europe – experimental test environments from DFKI, Flanders Make, CIIRC CTU, and RPTU – will help the project demonstrate the practical implementation of a decentralized MaaS network.
“The RAASCEMAN project is of strategic importance for Flanders Make as we believe manufacturing-as-a-service will become more and more the norm,” confirms Bart Meyers from Flanders Make. “Many small and innovative engineering companies that emerge today are able to engineer excellent products, but they want to outsource (part of) the manufacturing of their products. The outcome of the project is an important step towards de-risking the outsourcing of manufacturing by enabling companies to more quickly set up supply alternatives.”
“RAASCEMAN allows us to extend the concept of distributed production and manufacturing as a service built in RICAIP to a network of additional manufacturing service providers,” points out Pavel Burget, director of the RICAIP Testbed Prague in CIIRC CTU in Prague. “RAASCEMAN not only relies on connecting testbeds but also includes industrial partners such as Continental and Aska Bikes to validate the concept in a true, real-life environment.”
"To fully unlock the potential of Manufacturing as a Service, it is essential to lower the barriers for new companies to join these dynamic networks. Within the RAASCEMAN project, we aim to develop innovative solutions that analyze past products and use them as blueprints to create predefined service descriptions,” explains Tatjana Legler, Deputy Head of Chair of Machine Tools and Control Systems, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau RPTU. “These descriptions will serve as customizable templates, requiring only minimal adaptation by companies. This streamlined approach simplifies onboarding, empowering more manufacturers to seamlessly integrate and actively contribute to resilient and adaptive supply chains."
RAASCEMAN's solutions enable companies to plan their production flexibly and optimize production processes and resource allocation in real time – even under changing logistics and production conditions. This leads to a reduction in transaction costs, efficient selection of suitable suppliers, and reliable assurance of access to critical resources. At the same time, the technology enables a rapid response to changing market conditions or customer requirements. As a result, production delays can be minimized and sales losses avoided.
“Our ambition for this project is that new innovative ideas and technologies will be shaped into sustainable production-ready solutions, aiming to improve the resiliency of European manufacturing value chains,” says Kosmas Alexopoulos, LMS Patras.
"The RAASCEMAN project aligns with CEA's vision to enhance the resilience of European manufacturing organizations by leveraging Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS) and advanced digital technologies such as Asset Administration Shell (AAS), Digital Twins, and Product Passports," says Kunal Suri, CEA France. "At CEA, we look forward to collaborating with our consortium partners over the next three years to develop the RAASCEMAN solutions that will support Europe's vision for sustainable and resilient value chains."
"Our key competence as solution developer and system integrator is also covering deep use case/market requirement analysis and supporting the IT architecture design that is not only tailor-made solution for the use case requirements but also the requirements of future markets,” outlines Raimund Broechler, Netcompany Intrasoft. “These new solutions developed in RAASCEMAN will bring our industry use case partners into the position to keep their state-of-the-art product portfolio and their competitiveness. This does not only mean competitiveness on price but also the innovativeness of their manufacturing processes.”
To reduce the critical dependency on a single supplier, companies will be able to fulfill small orders flexibly or use remanufactured components. In collaboration with ASKA Bikes, a real-life scenario will be developed and tested to validate the use of new technologies, such as data rooms and digital product passports, under actual conditions for effective information exchange.
“The motivation of a global player like us is quite clear: supply chain management and complexity of our production process must be managed fully automatically in the future,” says Jakub Hamerník, Head of Smart Automation, Continental Automotive Czech Republic. “Moreover, we see this project as a great opportunity for our team to increase our competencies across various areas of Industry 4.0 activities, such as project management, system design, risk assessment, and more. We are looking for strong partners in a consortium that we are ready to fully support with our dedication."
“The RAASCEMAN project can be an excellent opportunity for small companies like ASKA, as Manufacturing as a Service offers access to advanced manufacturing technologies and processes without the need for large investments,” explains Sam Van Neck from ASKA Bikes. “For us in the bicycle industry, this allows us to outsource our manufacturing needs to specialized providers in Europe, so we can focus on core activities such as product development, engineering, and sales.”
RAASCEMAN aims to sustainably optimize the design and management of supply chains. The use of these models can also have positive effects on sustainability and the promotion of the circular economy in the production ecosystem. RAASCEMAN thus creates the basis for a more resilient, flexible, and environmentally friendly future for the industry.
More Information
https://raasceman.eu