INESC TEC promotes competitiveness in European SMEs
The European project Net-Challenge (www.netchallenge.org) led by INESC Porto, the coordinating entity of INESC TEC, was concluded at the end of February. The Manufacturing Systems Engineering Unit (UESP) participated in this innovative project that aimed to improve the competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises by creating and managing collaborative business networks.
In order to be successful in competitive markets, SMEs must increase the added value of their products and services and focus their efforts on complex products and consumers. SMEs should adopt new business models and establish dynamic and non-hierarchical business networks. This is the only way for them to be able respond rapidly and offer competitive prices and differentiated products. In more traditional hierarchical business networks, smaller companies have to perform specific roles that are defined by larger companies; this limits their potential to differentiate.
The project’s complete title is “Net-Challenge - Innovative networks of SMEs for complex products manufacturing” and the aim is to design and develop models, methodology and IT tools to support SMEs and create and manage non-hierarchical networks. The innovation is that the SMEs can combine their competencies and resources and share the decision-making processes.
Throughout the project SMEs were given methods and tools to help create and manage these networks. These tools help SMEs manage business communities, manage the operations associated with the design and manufacture of complex or customised products and manage the performance of these networks.
The project included three case studies: the Portuguese case in the textile sector with companies such as Riopele and RFS, the Italian case in the footwear industry with companies such as Synesis and Italian Concept and the Spanish case in the machine-tools industry with companies such as ONA and RoboC.
In addition to INESC Porto several other institutions from different countries participated in the project, including the Fatronik Foundation in Spain, the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (ITIA) from Italy and the University of Vaase and Wapice in Finland, the Centre of Process Integration and Innovation (CENI) in Portugal, the TIE Nederlands B.V. in the Netherlands and the University of Tsinghua in China.
The UESP project team included Luís Carneiro (project leader), Américo Azevedo, Asif Mohammed, César Toscano, Jorge Pinho de Sousa, Ricardo Almeida and Vânia Lopes.
This project was funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme of Support for Technological Research and Development in NMP (Nanosciences, nanotechnologies, materials & new Production Technologies, Reference CP-FP 229287-2).
