Nowadays, the European manufacturing industry is facing multiple challenges: Increasing international competition, political tensions, material shortages or unpredictable natural events. These factors have exposed the weaknesses of traditional, rigid supply chains. The ability to adapt flexibly to changes is becoming a decisive success factor for manufacturers and suppliers. The new European research project RAASCEMAN addresses these challenges and is dedicated to the question of how supply chains can be made resilient and resistant. For the Czech Republic, the project involves the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics of the Czech Technical University in Prague and its long-standing industrial partner, Continental Automotive Czech Republic, based in Brandýs nad Labem.
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 analyse 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 support companies in creating digital twins of their production and establishing an advanced infrastructure for data exchange. They therefore make a significant contribution to the flexibility and resilience of modern production processes.
“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 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.
RAASCEMAN will test its ambitious solutions in two industrial application areas: the automotive sector and the bicycle industry. With the help of five pilot plants – experimental test environments from DFKI, Flanders Make, CIIRC CTU and RPTU – spread across Europe, the project will demonstrate the practical implementation of a decentralized MaaS network.
“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 includes also industrial partners such as Continental and ASKA Bikes to validate the concept in true real-life environment.”
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.
“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 to avoid any issues towards our customers,” 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 competences across various areas of Industry 4.0 activities, such as project management, system design, risk assessment and more. We are looking for strong partnership in consortium that we are ready to fully support with our dedication.“
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 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.