COGNIMAN: - An excellent sharing arena that also triggers creativity

- I think the company visit was important to give all the partners a better understanding of our process and the challenges we want to solve at COGNIMAN. Fiberglass production was probably unknown to most people, but there was a lot of curiosity and commitment, so it was a very good start to the project. Now the collaboration with the other partners begins to concretize the issues, which technology we want to test in the pilot and more detailed project planning, says Martin Hemmer at 3B Fibreglass.

Read more about the project

Will keep the manufacturing in EU

The background for the project is that much of the manufacturing industry has moved to low-income countries. This is to avoid high labor costs and complex regulations in Europe. But it can be problematic to depend on goods from countries or regions far away, especially in vulnerable situations such as pandemics, war, and political instability. To become more self-sufficient, the EU will develop a more competitive European manufacturing industry.

Automate production processes

– Artificial intelligence, data, and robotics will make it possible to automate production processes that are currently difficult to automate. This will help to reduce production costs and maintain workplaces and jobs in Europe, and at the same time increase the working welfare and safety of employees, says Ahmed Nabil Belbachir, coordinator of the project and director of research at NORCE.

- Data is the glue for efficient and resilient value chain, says Stefano Foglietta from the European Commission who talked about the smart factory towards a smart value chain.

Gives access to experts

- Industrial partners give us experts and we can try technology that we are not having inhouse, says Shane Keanevey from Croom Precision Tooling Limited, a globally supplier for
surgical implants.

The kick off was also a good opportunity to get a better understanding of each other`s needs for the pilots. 

- The kick off meeting was very satisfying and, not surprisingly, it showed that to achieve our goals we need to work together. We will exchange both knowledge and experiences to find possible solution. This is absolutely in the same spirit as the Eyde Cluster`s daily strategy, precisely to be an excellent sharing arena that also triggers creativity. The principles for successful collaboration in this project must also be based on openness and commitment from experts.  Several disciplines are involved including IT, sensor technology, programming, machine learning, humanioria with more. We have gotten to know each other, and already in the next few weeks we are setting up meetings between several groups for specific work plans. So, the project already is in full swing, says Nadia Handeland in Eyde Cluster.