AGILE manufacturing for competitiveness and product innovation

The project has an avowed manufacturing vocation, thus becoming fully part of the “Smart Manufacturing” specialisation area. The partnership aims to develop interdisciplinary methodologies and approaches, based on the capacity for rapid and flexible conversion of production processes and lines, aimed at increasing competitiveness and product innovation. It is therefore an “industrial reaction” to the emergency COVID-19, built on flexibility, reconversion and resilience, the results of which have repercussions that exceed the time limits of the emergency, to be placed in a wider field of business competitiveness following the dictates of the new paradigm Industry 4.0.

Partnership

In the AGILE approach, the partnership took into account

• continuous (as a result of COVID-19, but not only) mobility of manufacturing, industrial and market scenarios, which sometimes require, in the short or short term, to vary production models: to be competitive you need to be able to innovate quickly the product and adapt accordingly the production system;
• the need, in support of the drive for product innovation, processes (additive and conventional manufacturing, machining and processing) and eco-systems (companies, districts, networks) supporting in a structural way the rapid and agile reconfiguration of production lines: to react effectively to emergencies of any type, a structured, integrated, easily reconfigurable system is needed;
• that an innovative product is successful only if it guarantees reliability and high performance, which must be measured and guaranteed: to ensure the quality of an agile production system, innovative remote monitoring methodologies are needed with the support of artificial intelligence and certification systems;
• that the ‘AGILE’ reconfiguration of processes and production lines must, in any case, remain highly competitive in terms of quality/functionality and safety at work; also with the aim of increasing the independence of manufacturing vis-à-vis countries with socio-economic conditions different from those of Italy.

The Project

The project deals with Agile Manufacturing for competitiveness and product innovation addressing four areas of development: (1) the virtualization of the design phase, (2) the development and industrialization of advanced and rapid production technologies, (3) quick reconfiguration and optimisation of production lines and (4) intelligent quality management.

The AGILE Project operates within specific (and well representative of regional manufacturing) types of production lines:

– aluminium alloy foundry (one mould manufacturer with its own internal foundry), magnesium alloys (one mould manufacturer integrated with a foundry) and cast iron (one foundry),

– roll forming of aluminium alloys (1 company manufacturing sheet metal forming systems),

– construction of welded components, in different materials (presence of one company producing welding systems and one company producing welded constructions),

The scenario described thus allows to easily identify the enabling technologies used by the project:

• Advanced production systems (design phase virtualization, fast and advanced production technologies, fast conversion and optimization of production lines, design and production, Intelligent quality management)
• Advanced materials (production of light alloys and high-performance cast iron, use of components made by additive manufacturing, use of innovative powders to optimize tool life)
• Nanotechnologies (production of nanostructured powders for tools, nano-scale characterization of materials surfaces).

Innovation

The degree of innovation of the project can be defined by reference to the areas of activity of AGILE.

• Design phase virtualization: implementation of integrated solutions and innovative systems for design chain management and optimization (process-product integrated development) in manufacturing partners; the integration and customization of systems, compared to the peculiarities of production cycles, will be the main element of innovation;
• Development and industrialization of advanced and rapid production technologies: the availability of components/products made with high level of innovation systems (additive manufacturing, hybrid processing systems, etc. ) will make it possible to appreciate the new technologies and progressively integrate them into the production cycle: this is the most significant element of innovation;
• Rapid conversion and optimisation of production lines: the carrying out of experimental campaigns, customized to the 7 production lines identified, will demonstrate the feasibility of the various solutions proposed for the flexible management of variations in products and lots; the innovation is certainly “system”, typically consisting of the implementation of highly integrated and specialized solutions with respect to the peculiarities of the processes, with the progressive and personalized introduction of Kpis concepts, OEE and with their finalization to the flexibility of the entire production system;
• Intelligent quality management: production monitoring and control systems will be designed and implemented, with the possibility, through predictive quality models, to act in the management of process conditions; The traceability of products will be increased, in order to reach their digital certification; these are innovative approaches developed so far in a “localized” and not systematic way: their integrated introduction in various production contexts is the element-key to innovative action.

I partner

The role of Ecor International SpA is fundamental and transversal to address the digitalization of the production lines under consideration. In particular, following the study of advanced solutions for agile manufacturing, multi-disciplinary skills and solutions proposed by Enginsoft support the Virtualization phases of the design phase, Fast reconfiguration and optimization of production lines and intelligent quality management.

The project partners are members of the SINFONET and M3NET networks and: ZANARDI FONDERIE SpA, ECOR INTERNATIONAL SpA, SAEN Srl, AM TEKNOSTAMPI SpA, DELKA Srl, PROMOTOEC LSMC Srl, MBN SpA, UNILAB Srl,  ENGINSOFT SpA, GOM Italia Srl, CNR ICMATE, UNIVERSITY OF PADUA with the DTG and DII Departments.

Funding Scheme POR – Obiettivo “Incremento dell’attività di innovazione delle imprese” – Parte FESR fondo europeo di sviluppo regionale 2014 – 2020.