Next-generation sustainable manufacturing

There is a growing need for manufacturing production systems to evolve in line with the products and processes of the future. The portability, flexibility, efficiency and productivity provided by the cloud enable businesses to perform optimally with an eye on tomorrow. However, SMEs have yet to embrace manufacturing cloud solutions that help them work smarter by providing cost-effective, on-demand access to technology and information.

With EU funding, the project 'Collaborative and adaptive process planning for sustainable manufacturing environments' (CAPP-4-SMEs) aims to develop a cloud manufacturing environment to facilitate the process plans of SMEs.

Central to the project is a web-based planning system that primarily gathers data on the availability and condition of factory machines in real time via the cloud. This cloud and service-oriented computing method focuses on several of the main concepts in the future of manufacturing.

SMEs will now have the option of leaving behind traditional tools and approaches and migrating their manufacturing processes and systems to the cloud.

During the first reporting period, project partners began with development of the service-oriented platform for cloud manufacturing. The integrated solution will support process planning services to make existing manufacturing processes and systems more robust.

CAPP-4-SMES is designing intelligent and sustainable solutions for the manufacturing industry. Cloud manufacturing should reduce product life-cycle times in factories by simplifying processes and systems. By doing so, the project will increase the competitiveness and efficiency of manufacturing SMEs.