EuProGigant

European production gignet for calamity-reducing self-orchestration of value creation and Learning Ecosystems

© Projekt EuProGigant

In the "EuProGigant" project, leading representatives of industry and science from Austria and Germany demonstrate the technological and economic benefits of the open GAIA-X platform.
The goal of the project is to demonstrate a cross-site digitally networked production ecosystem with resilient, data-driven and sustainable value creation to strengthen European industry.

The paradigms of highly automated serial production and global supply chains with low stock levels, as well as maximizing productivity through specialization result in a flexibility deficit of European industry, which marks the starting point of the project initiative. The current problem situation arises from precisely this inflexibility and is characterized by the sudden disappearance of market demand or established products, supply bottlenecks and employee absences. The existing basic burden is aggravated by the increasing individualization of consumer goods. The central research questions of the project are derived from this: How can
(1) value chains be equipped with a resilience towards market changes and enabled for a high variety of variants,
(2) interdependencies between value-added stages be recognized and made usable for increasing economic efficiency,
(3) reactive and at the same time universal platforms for production systems be designed?
In answering these questions, the consortium focuses on optimizing the speed and flexibility of value creation by implementing the technical architecture of a data ecosystem in the sense of GAIA-X. A high-frequency data acquisition by means of open low-cost solutions in combination with a process-oriented aggregation of the acquired data should provide a high incentive for new users. In addition, an easy, selfconfigurable networking of the infrastructure ecosystem with the data ecosystem should accelerate the speed of value creation. Implementation of the GAIA-X architecture is to be made easier, especially for SMEs, thus creating the basis for independent and cost-effective organization in manufacturing networks. The use of artificial intelligence will be consistently combined with statistical approaches. The aim is to link models with a clear description of uncertainty and recognized patterns or the occurrence of events with probabilities. This is the basis for almost real-time control loops with intelligent decision making and integrated process and business rules. Ultimately, automated systems will be developed into autonomous, bidirectionally communicating value-added entities with a virtual representation of the product and process life cycles.

Project partners:

• Pilotfabrik Industrie 4.0, TU Wien (Austria)
• Concircle Management Consulting GmbH (Austria)
• craftworks GmbH (Austria)
• Stark Spannsysteme GmbH (Austria)
• A1 Digital International GmbH (Austria)
• WFL Millturn Technologies GmbH & Co. KG (Austria)
• Plasser & Theurer, Export von Bahnbaumaschinen, Gesellschaft m.b.H. (Austria)
• EIT-Manufacturing East GmbH (Austria)
• Institut für Produktionsmanagement, Technologie und Werkzeugmaschinen (PTW), TU Darmstadt (Germany)
• IGH Infotec AG (Germany)
• Gebrüder Heller Maschinenfabrik GmbH (Germany)
• Software AG (Germany)

Project coordinator:
Pilotfabrik Industrie 4.0, TU Wien

Contact for German consortium:
Technische Universität Darmstadt (PTW)
Institut für Produktionsmanagement, Technologie und Werkzeugmaschinen

Project duration: Mar. 2021 – Feb. 2025

Total costs: 8.6 million euros

Total funding: 5.0 million euros