RaRe2: revolutionizing manufacturing with a holistic ecosystem platform

Challenge

RaRe2 aims at developing a resilient and flexible Holistic Ecosystem Platform to connect European organizations and rapidly reconfigure production processes. 

The goal is to enable industries to adopt reconfigurable manufacturing systems and quickly respond to unexpected challenges and changes, such as market fluctuations, legal changes, disruptions, or global crises, which may have a negative impact on supply chains and production capabilities. 

The key pillars of RaRe² are: 

- Early detection of reconfiguration needs using AI technologies to analyze data from various sources. 
- Smart connections of physical and logical elements to rapidly adapt products, processes, and supply chains. 
- Empowering and up-skilling people to make decision-making processes faster and allow workers to quickly learn new jobs. 

RaRe2 targets manufacturers with medium or high-volume production systems. The concept will be demonstrated and validated in realistic use cases, including modular sterilization units, car body parts, child seats and face masks with recyclates, and prescription contact lens manufacturing. 

Approach

RaRe2's approach includes developing innovative digital solutions and acquiring knowledge about standards and methodologies to support fast reconfiguration. We were involved in both activities.  

The RaRe2 methodology consists of three main phases: preparation, technology development, and adoption and demonstration. 

Before applying to real industrial environments, technical and methodological developments are tested in controlled laboratory demonstrators by RTD partners, and the outcome is validated in four relevant selected use cases. 

Conclusion

The RaRe² Holistic Ecosystem Platform will enable a green wave, capable of: 

- detecting upcoming issues 
- alerting decision makers 

proposing simulations for potential new destinations, including adjacent reasonable sectors and products, as well as new routes for production through internal reconfiguration and supply chain involvement. The platform will also provide a plan for implementing the changes and estimates the expected speed of each connected node along the new route. 

This Project is funded by the European Union (Project Number: 101092073). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for them. The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 

Project Consortium

1. Fraunhofer IWU – Germany  2. SYXIS VSI - Lithuania 3. POLITECNICO DI MILANO - Italy 4. AIT AUSTRIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GMBH - Austria 5. BIBA - BREMER INSTITUT FUER PRODUKTION UND LOGISTIK GMBH - Germany  6. RESEARCH CENTER FOR NON DESTRUCTIVE TESTING GMBH - Austria  7. EUROPEAN FEDERATION FOR WELDING JOINING AND CUTTING - Belgium 8. PROFACTOR GMBH – Austria  9. CORE KENTRO KAINOTOMIAS AMKE - Greece  10. MMM HEALTHCARE INTERNATIONAL GMBH -  Germany 11.  FONTANA PIETRO S.P.A. - Italy 12. L.KARWALA SPOLKA KOMANDYTOWA - Poland  13. MENICON B.V. - Netherlands 14.  R2M SOLUTION SRL - Italy 15. Q4PRO SPOLKA Z OGRANICZONA ODPOWIEDZIALNOSCIA - Poland  16. THERMOGLASS.EU SPOLKA Z OGRANICZONA ODPOWIEDZIALNOSCIA - Poland 17. ENGINSOFT SPA - Italy 18. SYMATE GMBH - Germany 19. LSE - LIGHTWEIGHT STRUCTURES ENGINEERING GMBH - Germany 20. ERRE QUADRO SOCIETA A RESPONSABILITA LIMITATA - Italy 21. RINA CONSULTING SPA - Italy 22. DEMCON INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS GRONINGEN BV - Netherlands