ABOUT US

Welcome to SmartFactoryEU

Within the EU, the desire has been expressed since 2017 to place the numerous smart manufacturing activities in member states under one roof. The goal is to strengthen Europe’s position on the world market. This has now become reality with the foundation of SmartFactoryEU.

OUR MISSION STATEMENT

The founding member have defined the following aims and values for the organization. Goal is to strengthen the European ecosystem and to become the frontrunner in manufacturing:

  • Connecting manufacturing and digital transformation research and demonstration centres
  • Being their common voice towards the EU
  • Sharing and promoting a common vision and roadmap to enable and speed up “Industry 4.0 adoption”
  • Serving as a reference for the future of sustainable, inclusive and climate neutral manufacturing
  • Supporting the creation of digital talents

“Europe has strong economies with high-quality expertise in manufacturing. But now, higher environmental standards and the COVID crisis call for change. Let us focus on investing in innovation, new skills, and new technologies to ensure product, technology, and digital sovereignty in Europe.”

Peter van Harten
Chairman of the Supervisory Board of SmartFactoryEU

WHO WE ARE

Initiated by Flanders Make from Belgium, Brainport Industries from The Netherlands and SmartFactory-KL from Germany, SmartFactoryEU EWIV was founded in September 2019 as an association based on EU law.

Association structure

The association is structured into:

  • the Members Assembly representing all members
  • the Executive Board running the business
  • the Supervisory Board controlling the operation and setting the strategic goals.

The Executive Director is responsible for running the daily business and serving the member network.

All members constitue the Members Assembly which meets at regular intervalls to discuss relevant research topics and the strategic direction of the association.

SmartFactoryEU acts exclusively in the interest of its members and is not profit-oriented.

SUPERVISORY BOARD

Peter van Harten, Isah/Plattform Smart Industry NL, Chairman
Prof. Dr. Martin Ruskowski, SmartFactory-KL
Dr. Jorge Posada Velásquez, Vicomtech
Dr.ir. Dirk Torfs, Flanders Make

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

John Blankendaal, Brainport Industries

OUR MEMBERS

brainport industries

John Blankendaal: “To be competitive internationally, we have to cooperate on a European level. The SmartFactoryEU network will improve time to market.”

About Brainport Industries

Tier-one, tier-two and tier-three suppliers in the open High-Tech supply chain in The Netherlands have joined forces to create Brainport Industries. Brainport Industries designs, develops and manufactures leading, advanced, precise and intelligent high tech equipment.

Brainport Industries provides a fertile ground and a solid structure for collaborative projects whether they are related to technology, market or people. It’s an environment that provides for a continuing flow of knowledge workers and experts and enables suppliers to increase their output and steadily grow into market leaders.

OEMs who use this chain optimally will be able to serve their customers better. Brainport Industries is the world’s leading open supply chain for High Tech companies, and our ambition is to further strengthen and develop it.

  • John Blankendaal: “To be competitive internationally, we have to cooperate on a European level. The SmartFactoryEU network will improve time to market.”

    About Brainport Industries

    Tier-one, tier-two and tier-three suppliers in the open High-Tech supply chain in The Netherlands have joined forces to create Brainport Industries. Brainport Industries designs, develops and manufactures leading, advanced, precise and intelligent high tech equipment.

    Brainport Industries provides a fertile ground and a solid structure for collaborative projects whether they are related to technology, market or people. It’s an environment that provides for a continuing flow of knowledge workers and experts and enables suppliers to increase their output and steadily grow into market leaders.

    OEMs who use this chain optimally will be able to serve their customers better. Brainport Industries is the world’s leading open supply chain for High Tech companies, and our ambition is to further strengthen and develop it.

brainport industries

Dr. Dirk Torfs: “SmartFactoryEU will make cross-border impact and create a strong innovation eco-system. By collaborating closely, industry and research will shape our future and stimulate prosperity in Europe.”

About Flanders Make

Flanders Make is the strategic research centre for the manufacturing industry. From our sites all over Flanders (Belgium), we stimulate open innovation through excellent research. In addition, companies can work together with us in a custom innovation trajectory. Finally, we also offer an extensive range of testing and validation infrastructure for products and production.

Our goal is to contribute to the technological development of the vehicles, machines and factories of the future. By doing so, we create added value for the manufacturing industry. Together we help companies innovate better and faster. In addition, we attach great importance to international cooperation in the field of innovation and to participation in European research projects.

Today Flanders Make counts more than 650 researchers who work full-time as a unique research community on a joint industrial research agenda.

  • Dr. Dirk Torfs: “SmartFactoryEU will make cross-border impact and create a strong innovation eco-system. By collaborating closely, industry and research will shape our future and stimulate prosperity in Europe.”

    About Flanders Make

    Flanders Make is the strategic research centre for the manufacturing industry. From our sites all over Flanders (Belgium), we stimulate open innovation through excellent research. In addition, companies can work together with us in a custom innovation trajectory. Finally, we also offer an extensive range of testing and validation infrastructure for products and production.

    Our goal is to contribute to the technological development of the vehicles, machines and factories of the future. By doing so, we create added value for the manufacturing industry. Together we help companies innovate better and faster. In addition, we attach great importance to international cooperation in the field of innovation and to participation in European research projects.

    Today Flanders Make counts more than 650 researchers who work full-time as a unique research community on a joint industrial research agenda.

SmartFactory-EU

Prof. Dr. Martin Ruskowski: “Shared Production is the future. The European Gaia-X project is based on a strong network of companies, and SmartFactoryEU intends to implement these collaboration concepts.”

About SmartFactory-KL

The Technology Initiative SmartFactory KL e.V., founded in 2005 as a non-profit association, is an Industrie 4.0 network of industrial and research partners who jointly carry out projects regarding the factory of the future.SmartFactory-KL is a manufacturer-independent demonstration and research platform which is unique in the world. Here, innovative information and communications technologies and their application are tested and developed in a realistic, industrial production environment.

The technology initiative, supported by the active participation of its members, has already established pragmatic solutions, first products and common standards. SmartFactory-KL intensively cooperates with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Kaiserslautern and was appointed Mittelstand 4.0-Kompetenzzentrum Kaiserslautern (SME 4.0 Competence Center) by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in 2016.

  • Prof. Dr. Martin Ruskowski: “Shared Production is the future. The European Gaia-X project is based on a strong network of companies, and SmartFactoryEU intends to implement these collaboration concepts.”

    About SmartFactory-KL

    The Technology Initiative SmartFactory KL e.V., founded in 2005 as a non-profit association, is an Industrie 4.0 network of industrial and research partners who jointly carry out projects regarding the factory of the future.SmartFactory-KL is a manufacturer-independent demonstration and research platform which is unique in the world. Here, innovative information and communications technologies and their application are tested and developed in a realistic, industrial production environment.

    The technology initiative, supported by the active participation of its members, has already established pragmatic solutions, first products and common standards. SmartFactory-KL intensively cooperates with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Kaiserslautern and was appointed Mittelstand 4.0-Kompetenzzentrum Kaiserslautern (SME 4.0 Competence Center) by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in 2016.

Vicomtech

Dr. Jorge Posada: “SmartFactoryEU has been created with the vision of connected network throughout Europe and we want to be an active member from the beginning.”

About Vicomtech

Vicomtech is a Research, Technology & Innovation Centre (170 people, 65 Ph.D) specialised in the synergies between Artificial Intelligence and Visual Computing, Interaction and Communication technologies.  We have a strong domain and application orientation, and one of our main sectors of activity is Industry and Advanced Manufacturing.

We have a clear strategy to develop, validate and deploy technological solutions in Smart Factory and Industry 4.0 contexts, mainly through R&D projects, but also with demonstrators, testbeds, training and proof-of-concept activities. Our specialisation lines are Cognitive Vision, Virtual Engineering & Simulation, Manufacturing Intelligence (Connectivity and Cloud/Edge Computing)  and Industrial Cybersecurity. We work actively with local and international companies -both large groups and specialised SMEs- in specific sectors such as the automotive sector (from large Tier-1s to medium-small sized component manufacturers), aeronautics and machine-tool manufacturers. 

We work in synergy with specialised technological companies such as automation integrators, engineering firms and SW providers (CAD/CAM, ERP, MES). Vicomtech is active part of the Industry 4.0 Basque Digital Innovation Hub (BDIH, https://basqueindustry.spri.eus/en/basque-digital-innovation-hub/), which offers a distributed network of highly specialised labs and testbeds in Flexible Robotics, Additive Manufacturing, Cybersecurity, Smart and Connected Machines, Cybersecurity and Advanced Materials.

  • Dr. Jorge Posada: “SmartFactoryEU has been created with the vision of connected network throughout Europe and we want to be an active member from the beginning.”

    About Vicomtech

    Vicomtech is a Research, Technology & Innovation Centre (170 people, 65 Ph.D) specialised in the synergies between Artificial Intelligence and Visual Computing, Interaction and Communication technologies.  We have a strong domain and application orientation, and one of our main sectors of activity is Industry and Advanced Manufacturing.

    We have a clear strategy to develop, validate and deploy technological solutions in Smart Factory and Industry 4.0 contexts, mainly through R&D projects, but also with demonstrators, testbeds, training and proof-of-concept activities. Our specialisation lines are Cognitive Vision, Virtual Engineering & Simulation, Manufacturing Intelligence (Connectivity and Cloud/Edge Computing)  and Industrial Cybersecurity. We work actively with local and international companies -both large groups and specialised SMEs- in specific sectors such as the automotive sector (from large Tier-1s to medium-small sized component manufacturers), aeronautics and machine-tool manufacturers. 

    We work in synergy with specialised technological companies such as automation integrators, engineering firms and SW providers (CAD/CAM, ERP, MES). Vicomtech is active part of the Industry 4.0 Basque Digital Innovation Hub (BDIH, https://basqueindustry.spri.eus/en/basque-digital-innovation-hub/), which offers a distributed network of highly specialised labs and testbeds in Flexible Robotics, Additive Manufacturing, Cybersecurity, Smart and Connected Machines, Cybersecurity and Advanced Materials.

OUR PROMOTORS

Ministry of Economic Affairs, Transport, Agriculture and Viniculture of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

EFRE – Europäischer Fond für Regionale Entwicklung, (European Fond for Regional Development), Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Address

SmartFactoryEU EWIV / EEIG
Trippstadter Strasse 122
67663 Kaiserslautern
Germany

contact

Tel: +32 497 43 27 44
info@smartfactory.eu
www.smartfactory.eu

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