Manufacturing Data Space
The challenge
The manufacturing industry has a long tradition in the EU, being one of the main employers providing jobs
for highly skilled and qualified staff. However, the sector is currently facing challenges related to
competition from non-EU countries and rise of costs. Specifically, due to the increasing costs of energy and
raw materials in Europe, companies have further decreased profit margins. In addition, companies need to
adapt to the new environmental initiatives, requiring an ambitious voluntary initiative from their side, to
demonstrate their commitment to sustainability, which has been proven to be very difficult. Manufacturing
companies generate daily a vast amount of unstructured data, which they do not capitalize on for supply
chain optimization purposes.
The solution
This UC proposes an Offset Printing-centric MDS. Leveraging data from Pressious Arvanitidis S.A. (PRES)
and Colorprint S.A. (CP) acting as the Data Providers, Four Dot Infinity (FDI) and the Center for Research
& Technology Hellas (CERTH), will act as data consumers and service providers, developing decentralized
AI models and data analytics tools, to optimize the supply chains of PRES and CP, while also minimizing
production downtime through predictive maintenance strategies.
The innovations
Technological: This use case involves technological innovations such as digitalization and standardization
through the development of a dedicated large-scale MDS focused on offset printing. Leveraging the data
collected, new AI models based on federated learning and transfer learning will be developed to achieve
Zero-Defect Manufacturing (ZDM) principles, enabling timely anomaly detection, supporting proactive
strategies in production, maintenance, and consumable refilling.
Social: The creation of the MDS will empower a traditionally resource-intensive domain, to access the EU
Data Economy market and adopt ZDM principles. Particularly, the MDS aims to break data silos and
enforce the European Commission’s vision on data economy and sovereignty, enhancing market
competitiveness, economic growth, innovation, and employment opportunities. Additionally, its creation
will enable manufacturers to align with Circular Economy principles, by adopting more environmentally
friendly practices and minimizing material waste, setting an example for environmental responsibility in
the offset printing industry.
Institutional: The UC will strengthen collaboration between EU-based R&D institutions and companies to
ensure trusted and secure data sharing. A reciprocal exchange of knowledge and technologies in the fields
of Data Spaces, IoT and AI/ML is envisioned between FDI, CERTH, PRES and CP.
The partners
