Better Factory: growing the European manufacturing business
Better Factory invites Small and Medium-sized Manufacturers (SMEs) to redesign their current product portfolio together with Business and Arts mentors and Technology experts. Manufacturers can tap into disruptive product innovation that responds to new market demands while keeping production resources optimal with RAMP IoT platform.
Better Factory helps manufacturers to enter new markets with customizable, personalized product or service portfolio. Together with Business and Arts Mentors and technology partners, manufacturers can discover new business models and digitalise their factories to match the production of new or personalized products.
During the project, Better Factory will assign high-skilled Business and Arts experts to analyse the current product / service portfolio with the core knowledge from manufacturers, to redesign customizable products and service portfolios using new digital technologies. This may spark new product designs, business models or brands.
For SMEs to produce batches of new and personalized products requires transforming traditional factories into lean and agile production facilities. Better Factories provides an Open and Standardized Advance Production Planning and Scheduling (APPS) system for manufacturers to test commercial tools to optimize waste, energy, resources and logistic.
RAMP (Robotics Automation Marketplace) is a free and open IoT platform (FIWARE) running on state of the art servers, with access to cloud storage and computing, enabling connection with robots, sensors, cameras, AR/VR and other equipment. RAMP will provide 3D simulation tool to create Digital Twin for virtual testing, co-creation space for teams to collaborate online among other digital services.
Better Factory Open Calls
Better Factory will select eight teams of European manufacturing SMEs, artists and technology providers in each Open Call (2021/2022). The selected teams will be supported through a period of 12 months where artists will be paired with technology suppliers to tackle the challenges proposed by the manufacturers.
The successful teams will get to:
- Explore new markets using digital technologies
- Test & develop new Agile-Production technologies with RAMP
- Training to reskill staff
- Business Support and mentoring
- Up to 200,000€ equity-free funding / team
The first Open Call is estimated to be launched on January 2021.
About Better Factory
Better Factory brings together key actors in the European technology, art and innovation landscape to provide an integrated innovation framework and a European network to deliver a standardized solution for Manufacturing SMEs to invent and manufacture new and personalized products and create services around them.
The consortium coordinated by VTT (Finland), includes 28 partners from 18 European countries representing the arts ecosystem (INOVA, GLUON and WAAG); Technology providers (Fraunhofer IPA, AIMEN, Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana, Slovakia National Centre of Robotic, INESCTEC, Technologiko Panepistimio Kyprou); Industrial cluster (Transylvania Furniture Cluster, Slovenian Tool and Die Development Centre, Latvian Federation of Food Companies / Food Products Quality Cluster, CLUTEX ‐ Klastr Technicke Textilie, Bydgoszcz Industrial Cluster, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Pécs‐Baranya, ICT Cluster and University of Oulu); Technology suppliers (INFOTECH, Top Data Science, Holonix, GESTALT Robotics and European Dynamics); Art supplier (In4Art); Business developers (FundingBox, Hermia Yrityskehitys Oy); Legal framework (time.lex); and Communication and Dissemination (Mobile World Capital Barcelona).
Contact
Ali Muhammad
Project Coordinator – VTT (Finland)
e-mail:
Marta Portalés
Marketing and communications – MWCapital (Spain)
e-mail: