MetaFacturing focuses on a digitized toolchain for metal part production which will lead to a more resilient production process with respect to the raw materials used (e.g., recycled materials), reduces operator effort and cost, and reduces scrap due to out-of-specification parts. The vision is to create a widely-applicable Digital Twin based process setup and control framework, fulfilling the requirements of industrial scale parts manufacturers (with a specific focus on metal parts) whose central hurdle is the effective use of available part and process data to improve the time-to-market and product quality. This framework will strongly leverage on a range of state-of-the-art technologies in the field of model-based data fusion, efficient process simulation, and data standardisation, and continuous Life Cycle Assessment in order to efficiently develop solutions which are tailored for deployment in industry. MetaFacturing project brings together 6 market leaders (FRONIUS, NEMAK, FILL, VITRONIC, BENTELER and LTH) which will closely cooperate in order to reach a new level of leadership in sustainable manufacturing while maintaining their respective market dominance. The envisaged approach will exploit all available data in the process, starting from material data, in-process measurements, end-of-line quality control and sampling-based product validation. The Digital Twin based approach will enable the holistic consideration of this data in order to provide automatic feedback for the process control, as well as providing novel (meta-)data on the materials used which will be valuable to train the engineers working with these materials.

AID4SME will facilitate SMEs in developing combined AI and data solutions for large scale resource optimisation challenges for industries that have significant impact on the objectives of the Green Deal. Minimum 20 SMEs, selected through 2 open calls, will receive FSTP to develop these solutions with the support of a Community of Practice (COP). The ambition is to create a COP that will continue after the project lifetime. AID4SME brings together 9 technology blocks and low-TRL playgrounds from 4 scientific partners, to educate and support the SMEs. Additionally, 4 large industry partners (from automotive, whitegoods, battery and energy sector) provide real-life large scale resource optimization challenges that require combined AI and data solutions, and high-TRL playgrounds to integrate and demonstrate the solutions.AID4SME offers an open platform that is flexible to bring in challenges from outside the consortium. AID4SME provides the infrastructure and learning environment that enable the SMEs to solve the challenges, demonstrate solutions and grow into impactful enterprises. The technology blocks cover a wide area of AI & data technologies for the full cycle of data collection, creation of insights, decision support and automation. These technologies have the potential to have significant impact on the Green Transition and boost EU competitiveness for industries. AID4SME will collaborate with the AI-on-Demand platform to enrich its repository with the AID4SME tools and framework, while it is open to deploy the tools/frameworks already available on the AI-on-Demand platform for new use cases. AID4SME will assess the impact of the developed technologies on Green Deal objectives and on social and human aspects. AID4SME brings along partners who are experienced in re-skilling and up-skilling of SMEs and applying standardization as enabler for exploitation. The wide geographical coverage, with partners and DIHs from all across Europe, ensures maximum impact.