Toolkits and Resources for Manufacturers Adopting Industry 4.0
The manufacturing industry is very important for the North Sea Region economy and remains a driver for growth.
The focus of the GrowIn 4.0 project will be the common challenges manufacturing SMEs throughout the NSR face today, and the opportunities they bring. Many of these SMEs are moving toward the fourth industrial revolution – Industry 4.0 – which is regarded as the industry of tomorrow.
If the manufacturing industry in the NSR is to remain competitive, we need to capture the potential for productivity and growth that Industry 4.0 appears to offer. There is a profound need for an experience based and smart gathering of efficient methods, tools and knowledge to guide SMEs in their transformation towards Industry 4.0.
GrowIn 4.0 aims to build strong competences and tools in the participating regions for the benefit of manufacturing SMEs. The approach is to establish a strong partnership which pools knowledge on the manufacturing industry and Industry 4.0. Main challenges and solutions in regards of implementing Industry 4.0 will be investigated.
The resulting collections of new or improved methods and tools – developed in interaction with SMEs – will be universal within different areas of the NSR.
The project is organised in 5 work packages:
- work package 1 – project management
- work package 2 – communication
- work package 3 – new business models and strategy development
- work package 4 – better use of technology and development of products
- work package 5 – training, education and recruitment of Industry 4.0 qualified staff
We’ve linked more tools and resources below. If you’d like to talk to discuss additional support to optimise your operations, talk to our ACMI 4.0 team who are running a European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programme to help SME manufacturers gear up for, and optimise, Industry 4.0.
Toolkits and Resources
Ostfalia I4.0 Catalog - Demonstrators of Industry 4.0 technologies
In order to show various technical possibilities how companies can take time-, resource- and cost-saving steps towards digitization, Ostfalia’s GrowIn 4.0 project team has compiled a catalog of demonstrators of several Industry 4.0 technologies, which is being continuously expanded.
IMPULS Industry 4.0-Readiness Online Self-Check
This tool assesses companies in six ‘dimensions’ and shows their progress in comparison with competing enterprises.
Transition Industry 4.0 Workshop
The Transition Industry 4.0 workshop is a two hour workshop developed to stimulate a mindset of change in firms, with focus on building strategies for the industry 4.0 business future.
During this workshop, suggestions and dreams related to industry 4.0 in de firm are harvested. By working together on industry 4.0 exercises, consensus is built and team collaboration stimulated. By acknowledging the individual fear for change, anxiety for the new can be overcome and resistance to change reduced.
Ideation camp
VIA University College Ideation camp is a way to formalise project management in SMEs. It describes 14 steps in 3 phases (before – during – after) and has proven to be very successful in SMEs.
Benefit Identification tool
This tool is aimed at helping firms identify the benefits, the dis-benefits, and business challenges they might anticipate from adoption of new technology.
The Big Data Game
The objective of the Big Data Game is to give participants insight in data driven innovations through the experience of a game.
This is a game for anyone who is interested in big data but doesn’t know what to do with it. It is an interesting experience, regardless of the size of the company. The game is all about developing a data driven Innovation: you are made to think about what kind of data driven innovation you can apply in your company.
Industry 4.0 Awareness/Readiness tool
Find out what the position of your organisation is regarding to Industry 4.0.
Based on the aspects of digitisation, regulatory considerations and readiness of a company, this assessment tool is structured into five categories:
- Business models and products
- Market & Customer Access
- Value Chain & Processes
- Legal considerations and Cyber/IT Security
- Strategy and Experience on Industry 4.0
HRM Smart Industry 4.0 tool
The online survey tool provides an automatically generated report with the results of your company and the various scores of your employees. With this report, you get a better understanding of how your employees perceive the future in terms of Industry 4.0 and how ‘smart’ your company already is.
ADMA: European Advanced Manufacturing Support Centre
This tool helps SMEs assess the possibility of adopting both advanced manufacturing solutions as well as social innovation strategies. Thereby transforming their organization through 7 transformation areas towards next-generation factories with more competitive, modern and sustainable production.
