DIMOFAC Digital Intelligent MOdular FACtories

Summary

Objective:
The manufacturing paradigm has shifted from an era of mass-production to an era of mass-customisation. Factories have to produce at the same pace differentiated products in order to meet customer expectations. DIMOFAC project aims at enabling European factories to build more responsive production lines.

Description:
The DIMOFAC initiative is made up of 4 stages:

The first stage of the project, involving six manufacturers from various industries (Albea Services, cosmetics packaging; Éirecomposites, Aerospace Components; Philips Consumer Lifestyle, Shavers; VDL Bus Modules, medical beds and telescope parts; Schaltag, interactive displays; Sculpteo, 3D printed parts) and part of the consortium, will aim at demonstrating the efficiency of the DIMOFAC Modular Factory Solution through pilot assembly lines.
During the second stage, these manufacturers will act as factory “lighthouses” by setting up industrial general-purpose showrooms for companies interested in investing in modular and reconfigurable production lines.
During the third stage, the consortium will provide modular production benchmarking services to more than a hundred existing companies belonging to the newly formed network of open pilot lines including in particular DIMOFAC partners and companies having expressed interest to offer services within the framework of DIMOFAC.
Finally, DIMOFAC will extend its modular production benchmarking services to more than a thousand companies throughout Europe that are not part of the aforementioned network.

Benefits:
The initiative should have a major impact on productivity, energy efficiency and costs. It is for instance estimated that the DIMOFAC Modular Factory Solution will enable plants to:
● Reduce by 15% the time it takes to reconfigure their production lines.
● Decrease by 10% the resources (raw materials, energy, fluids, manpower) used for the production process.
● Diminish by 15% the overall cost of production.

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Comment:

Development of the DIMOFAC solution: AAS models, DIMOFAC Digital Platform, Digital Twins for different industrial types
Creation of a pan European Test Bed, allowing SMEs to test their industrial needs and ideas

Result items:

Portfolio of plug and produce modules

More information & hyperlinks

Web resources:	https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/870092 https://dimofac.eu/
Start date:	01-10-2019
End date:	31-03-2024
Total budget - Public funding:	19 188 232,00 Euro - 14 163 497,00 Euro
Twitter:	@DIMOFAC_EU

Cordis data

Original description

The digitalization of industry opens the path for mass customization but requires leveraging the existing manufacturing ecosystems and establishing a collaborative manufacturing environment.
DIMOFAC project will enable the modularity, adaptability and responsiveness of a production line by the integration of Plug-and-Produce modules in a Closed-Loop Lifecycle Management System, for continuous production adaptation, optimization and improvement, in a fast and flexible manner.
Reconfigurability is achieved by implementing a Digital Twin of each module and by deploying Digital Thread linking product and process dataflow, enabling seamless secure communication throughout the product lifecycle in factory and connecting it to the management systems in conformance to RAMI4.0.
The DIMOFAC consortium is issued from the leading European open initiatives on smart manufacturing, leveraging know-how from past and running EU projects such as INTEGRADDE, COMMUNION, HIMALAIA, BRAINPORT, iM²AM, MIDIH, MARKET 4.0 and building upon a pre-existing network of open DIHs and competence centers such as SMART FACTORY KL, PICTIC, FFLOR, AFH, MANUHUB@WG. Partners will further extend their services and networks to leverage on the increased flexibility brought by modular production systems.
Six industrial pilot lines, with multi-material manufacturing, additive manufacturing and assembly capabilities, will enable to demonstrate DIMOFAC Modular Factory Solution, with reconfiguration time reduction of production lines, up to 75% expected for interactive displays (SCHALTAG), 50% for cosmetic, aeronautic and additive manufacturing (ALBEA, EIRE COMPOSITES and SCULPTEO); 30% for shavers (PHILIPS) and industrial modules (VDL).
A key result will be the network of open pilot lines, offering R&T and services supporting process validation and implementation in EU SMEs, Midcaps and large organisations in different sectors, spreading knowledge, awareness and adoption of DIMOFAC Modular Factory Solution.

Status

SIGNED

Url

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/870092

Call topic

DT-FOF-08-2019

Update Date

27-10-2022

Geographical location(s)

Structured mapping

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Factories of the Future Partnership - Made in Europe Partnership

Comment:

Development of the DIMOFAC solution: AAS models, DIMOFAC Digital Platform, Digital Twins for different industrial types
Creation of a pan European Test Bed, allowing SMEs to test their industrial needs and ideas

Result items:

Portfolio of plug and produce modules

Remaining challenge

Comment:

Main challenges identified are:

Training the existing workforce to use the new technologies
Support the start-up stages to overcome initial reluctance due to lack of knowledge and too many aspects to integrate, so that industrials does not know how to start
Reassure and support manufacturers to better embrace innovative Industry 4.0 technologies through test-before-invest approach
Creating positive image about the manufacturing industry in the new generation so that they are open to join manufacturing domain
Use of standardisation and healthy collaborations

Skills requirement

Comment:

Training the existing workforce to use the new technologies is identified as a main challenge

Result items:

M12 Project Technical Progress Report

M24 Data Management Plan (DMP)

M24 Dissemination and Communication Plan (D&CP)

M24 Project Technical Progress Report

M36 Dissemination and Communication Plan (D&CP)

M36 Project Technical Progress Report

M36 Standardization strategy and report (SR)

M6 Data Management Plan (DMP)

M6 Dissemination and Communication Plan (D&CP)

Modules pre-industrial scale deployment and testing

Portfolio of plug and produce modules

Result items:

An OPC UA Model of the Skill Execution Interaction Protocol for the Active Asset Administration Shell

An adaptive, artificial intelligence-based chatter detection method for milling operations

Architecture for Data Acquisition in Research and Teaching Laboratories

Integrating AR based operator support features for reconfigurable production systems

Representing the Virtual: Using AAS to Expose DigitalAssets

Towards a Comprehensive Methodology for Modelling Submodels in the Industry 4.0 Asset Administration Shell

Result items:

An OPC UA Model of the Skill Execution Interaction Protocol for the Active Asset Administration Shell

M36 Standardization strategy and report (SR)

Towards a Comprehensive Methodology for Modelling Submodels in the Industry 4.0 Asset Administration Shell

Comment:

DIMOFAC solution and underlying methodology supports the usage of standardised plug-and-produce modules (both hardware/ machines and software systems) to reduce configuration time, reduce wastage of resources and improve productivity

Contacts

DIMOFAC | Digital Intelligent MOdular FACtories

Original description

Status

Url

Call topic

Update Date

DAVID SEOANE

Jakub Kruszelnicki

Rosa Villaronga