Enabling Framework and Ecosystems for smart products and circular manufacturing (GENERATOR)

GENERATOR aims at providing a system which creates and supports the configurations, methodologies, production techniques, decisions and actions at all different levels and stages of the equipment manufacturing value chain so as to achieve the goals of customer centricity and loyalty, on-demand manufacturing of lot sizes of one' and best meet the Industry 4.0 objectives of operational excellence, where mass customization and personalization have become the norm, particularly for the SMEs. GENERATOR will deliver an advanced configuration variants’ framework and state-of-the-art production paradigm, embedding key technologies into a unified platform ecosystem to manage live product innovation, via building and shipping “configuration to specification”, through the seamless adaptation on new customer requirements. This involves a set of intelligent tools for real-time analytics, performance monitoring, early diagnosis, and recommender systems, further integrated into GENERATOR configuration environment. In relation to the range of flexible manufacturing aspects the GENERATOR Ecosystem will provide a set of self organizing, data driven modules (able to work independently) which will trigger dynamic interaction between them, and a smart orchestrator which will provide the ability to: -exchange customized product information between involved actors (and their GENERATOR modules) in the product life cycle, from manufacturers of basic equipment components to retailers and vendors up to the final customers via GENERATOR Decentralised B2B Marketplace; -to dynamically handle any necessary production line changes (fast reconfiguration and re-use) given a superior proficiency to tackle the varieties of personalized products and the corresponding flexible manufacturing processes;