The manufacturing industry is currently witnessing the fourth industrial revolution, also known as Industry 4.0 or Advanced Smart Manufacturing towards the Factory of the Future, where the 'real' and the 'virtual' world are to be seamlessly connected in cyber-physical production systems, exploiting digital manufacturing tools, Internet of Things and cloud computing technologies along the entire production process. Industry 4.0 addresses the ‘grand challenges’ of the 21st century society, facilitating new innovative products and systems and impacting across a broad range of application areas, where the current international economic situation intensifies the risks posed by increasing energy costs, depleting resources, and employment. The ultimate benefit is to improve affordable health care, higher standards of living, and quality consumer goods, addressing the 3 interlinked priorities identified by the EU strategy Europe 2020, promoting a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. In recent years, some large companies have integrated the digital tools such as cloud computing, rapid manufacturing, data analytics, virtualization, knowledge library and social networks in several stages of the product life-cycle, driven by the reduced time to market (short product development time), improved productivity (in terms of quality and reduced waste) and management of cost. However, manufacturers are burdened with outdated production facilities and a big inertia toward a radical transformation. On the other side, SMEs could more easily fulfil customized product requirements with computer-based systems that comprise simulation, 3D visualization, analytics, but at the present, they do not have enough awareness of the benefits and requirements of the digitalization and find it difficult to access this information. This proposal will contribute to the skills enhancement of the workforce, by spreading in a systematic, coherent, user friendly, and innovative way the available knowledge on the most recent advancements in this fast growing, resource and knowledge intensive application domain, allowing the participants to acquire and improve the skills on Digital Manufacturing technologies to link IT and industry. While several books, course and websites already exist associated with Industry 4.0, including a number of initiatives within the VET framework, no e-learning platform is currently available which provides a comprehensive framework on Digital Manufacturing Technologies capabilities on an open access basis. The Digit-T project will address this gap and provide a freely available on-line e-learning platform and well-structured open access book, providing: • a complete overview on the digitalization in industry; • a nest structure that allows a gradual deepening of the subjects and a broader target audience (e.g. layperson, manager, technician, researcher); • simple language, accessible also to technicians and laypersons; • examples and applications that give an idea on the potentials and illustrates the steps to follow; • innovative course based on methods like gamification to maximize engagement, motivation and experience of the user during the learning process; • open access platform with easy access and search; • downloadable learning materials; • multi-lingual training support; • a supporting text book; • economic and business considerations. The consortium considers all the above mentioned aspects essential for the success of the training platform that is intended to develop in the project. The main target of this training system are SMEs, because of the difficult access to such knowledge due to their limited size, time and financial capacities. Therefore, the end-users' interest group, which will provide the main specifications of the output, will be selected from the European SMEs that could have huge benefits in the integration of Digital Manufacturing technologies. Nevertheless, the training material will be absolutely suitable also for large companies dealing with the challenges of digitization. In this context, the main purpose of the project is to build a knowledge base that helps to translate Digital Manufacturing technologies into tangible industrial benefits and to spread the benefits from their implementation in the organisations. The main output of this project is, thus, the creation of a comprehensive training programme that allows the participants to improve the methodology and systems for Digital Manufacturing.
The manufacturing industry is currently witnessing the fourth industrial revolution as it increasingly moves towards Digital Manufacturing – often known as Industry 4.0, Smart Manufacturing and Factory of the Future – where the ‘real’ and the ‘virtual’ world are seamlessly connected in cyber-physical production systems, exploiting digital manufacturing tools, Internet of Things and cloud computing technologies along the entire production process. Industry 4.0 offers opportunities for companies to develop new products and ways of working while reducing costs. In recent years, some large companies have integrated digital tools such as cloud computing, rapid manufacturing, data analytics and virtualisation in several stages of the product lifecycle, driven by the need for reduced time to market (short product development time), improved productivity (in terms of quality and reduced waste) and management of cost. However, large manufacturers can be burdened with outdated production facilities and a big inertia towards a radical transformation. On the other side, SMEs could more easily fulfil customised product requirements with computer-based systems that comprise simulation, 3D visualisation and analytics, but often do not have enough knowledge about the benefits and requirements of the digitalisation and find it difficult to access clear and useful information about Digital Manufacturing due to their limited size, time and financial capacity. The aim of the Digital Manufacturing Training System for SMEs (Digit-T) project was to address this. It has created a free online training programme to help users understand what Digital Manufacturing is, the associated terminology, the expected benefits, and how an organisation can start adopting it. The key outputs of the project are the training materials developed which are available in English, Spanish and Italian and split into 2 parts: • A free online training course • Open access ebook The materials in both the training course and ebook are divided into 3 topics: • Management in Industry 4.0 • Advanced Manufacturing Systems • Intelligent Robotics Each topic in the online training course is divided into 3-4 training modules, each consisting of 3-5 sessions. Ten case studies are also linked to the training platform, with additional case studies and examples included, where appropriate, in individual sessions. Each session is designed to take the learner approx. 30 minutes to complete (excluding quizzes, case studies and additional materials). Additional reading materials are identified at the end of each session and, where appropriate, case studies relevant to that session are also linked. Materials can be accessed in any order. In the ebook each topic is divided into 3 standalone chapters. The online training course and ebook are complimentary but can be used independently of the other. All materials can be accessed via the project website at https://digit-t.eu. To ensure the content of the training platform, and subsequent book, were relevant and of interest to SMEs, the topics and modules included in the training platform, together with the arrangement of modules and sessions, style of sessions and session length, were informed by a user needs survey conducted with SMEs at the start of the project. Other books, courses and websites associated with Industry 4.0 do exist, including a number of initiatives within the VET framework. However, Digit-T is currently the only training framework on Digital Manufacturing Technologies available providing: • A comprehensive overview on the digitalisation in industry including technical and business considerations • Simple language, accessible to a broad target audience, e.g. manager, engineer, researcher, student • Accessibility via an online course and ebook which are complimentary to each other • Examples and applications that give an idea of the potential of Industry 4.0 • Multi-language support • Open access While the materials have been developed for SMEs, the training material is also suitable for larger companies dealing with the challenges of digitalisation, students, and any type of organization interested in the topic of I4.0 and digitalization. Therefore our engagement activities have focussed on SMEs as the prime users of Digit-T but throughout the project we have also engaged with a broader audience including large organisations and students.