LENS Living Lab Newsletter

"Smart Machines & Systems"

LENS Living Lab Open Research and Innovation Program

LENS Living Lab Ongoing Projects

HORSE Project
In this project, 15 partners from 7 EU countries are involved. The project coordinator is European Dynamics Advanced Systems of Telecommunications Informatics and Telematics SA.
www.horse-project.eu

In Project Focus

The main goal of the HORSE project is to develop the new generation of flexible, collaborative robot applications for the needs of manufacturing SMEs. This will be supported by the flexible model of a smart factory, involving collaboration with humans, robots, automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and machinery to realize industrial tasks in an efficient manner. New solutions will be tested and introduced by pilot industrial applications in Netherlands, Poland, and Spain. The sustainability of further development of this new generation robot applications and its use in the industry will be supported by the network of competence centers supported by the regional innovation hubs. The development and growth of this network will be initiated and supported by the introduction of four competence centers in France, Germany, Netherlands, and Slovenia. Slovenian Competence Centre – “ROBOFLEX Slovenia” will be organized within TCS-Toolmakers Cluster of Slovenia, supported by LENS Living Lab – INTESO Group as coordinator of the regional open research and innovation collaboration platform for robotics and in cooperation with ETRA Ltd. as operator of the Demonstration Center. This project also includes Open calls for application experiments for interested SMEs. This call will be available in autumn 2017.
-------------------------------------------------
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 680734

EU Strategies & Innovation Projects Funding Opportunities

Digital Single Market is one of the EU Commission's top priorities. This Strategy is built on three pillars:

Access: better access for consumers and businesses to digital goods and services across Europe;
Environment: creating the right conditions and a level playing field for digital networks and innovative services to flourish;
Economy & Society: maximizing the growth potential of the digital economy
More on this link

Digitizing European Industry - the industry is one of the pillars of the European economy – the manufacturing sector in the European Union accounts for 2 million enterprises, 33 million jobs and 60% of productivity growth. We stand on the brink of a new industrial revolution, driven by new-generation information technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, big data, and data analytics, robotics and 3D printing. They open new horizons for industry to become more adventurous, more efficient, to improve processes and to develop innovative products and services. Recent studies estimate that digitization of goods and services can add more than €110 billion of annual revenue in Europe in the next five years - more on this link

Source: EU Commission

New LENS Living Lab Collaborative Innovation Project Initiatives

In the last five months, LENS Living Lab partners initiated or were involved in the development of the five new international partnering innovation project initiatives. These initiatives were the reaction to different open calls launched by the Horizon 2020 framework program and ESA. Project partners are coming from more than 15 different EU countries and associated states. In the portfolio of participating organizations are SMEs and large enterprises from various industries, R&D organizations, universities, industry clusters, and other industry supporting organizations. The application areas of these projects are cloud computing services (CCS), robotics for SMEs, CPS/IoT, laser additive manufacturing, aerospace, and innovation ecosystem business models with related services development.
All submitted project proposals are in the evaluation phase at this moment.

--------------------------------------------------
Prepared by Brane Semolic, LENS Living Lab - INTESO Group

Report on Successful KM FEST Event in Odense, 11-13th October 2016
Prepared by Leif Henriksen
Regional Coordinator of 3L & IDA activities in KM FEST

In October 2016, LENS Living Lab (3L) and Society of Danish Engineers (IDA) hosted a two days seminar/workshop within the concept of KM FEST (Knowledge Management Festival). The first day’s focus was on the key challenges which high technology based start-up’s meet during their development process. The second day’s main focus was on how competence centres can organize themselves in order to be capable of successful supporting new businesses within automation and robotics.

Young entrepreneurs, students, experienced business people and academics from eight countries presented their cases and new ideas, discussed the topics in group-based workshops, exchanged experiences and fostered new ideas in a dynamic and creative environment. The event was one in a row of successful knowledge sharing and development workshops in Odense during the last ten years. Several promising business relations were established as a concrete result of the workshops and the networking. The real goal of the Odense events is that it should be a laboratory for the creation of new ideas and fostering of sustainable relations between business partners.

           Day 1: Challenges and Success Factors in developing technology based start-up´s

Several companies at different development stages presented their business cases, key technologies, and new products.Discussions in workshops enlightened the challenges in e.g. project management, test and prototyping, market launch as well as organizing the business during the different stages.

The latest research and practices within entrepreneurship in education at SDU (University of Southern Denmark) was presented as a supplement to the practical reflections in the workshops.

A new model for qualification of the project manager was presented: To learn knowledge is generally easier than to learn experience.Competence is the sum of Knowledge plus Experience plus proved Benefit for the stake- holders.

A presentation of a case study on Indian technology SMEs´ enlightened the opportunities and challenges of technology start-ups in India.

Day 2: Which kind of frameworks, local as well as global virtual networks, can enable technology-based start-ups within robotics to get the right support, knowledge base, exchange of experiences and access to the right resource pool.

Presentations by key persons from the robotic environment inOdense, showed how a mature and successful cluster of companies, knowledge providers and research/education institutions has grown up during the last 25 years. Now it has overcome the “critical mass” and shows a sustainable and fast growth. Odense is now recognized as the Robotic Knowledge Centre of Denmark and maybe of Northern Europe as well.

The global virtual network, 3L-Lense Living Lab is now at a stage where virtual platforms support programs and projects within different areas, such as technology management, knowledge management, and project management.

EU supported programs like those the EU-HORSE program offer start-ups opportunities to join international networks and get support to developing activities. Representatives from the Horse program demonstrated how key activities and regional competencecentres prepare the industry for the 4^th industrial revolution.

Summary of Learnings from the workshop on 11 & 12 th. Of October 2016 – Success factors and Challenges for entrepreneurs and regional competence centres for start-up´s within automation and robotics!

Critical Success Factors

A unique product and/or business plan ( The ” Blue Ocean Strategy”)
A strong spirit and will - ”impossible is no option”
The right balanced team with supplementing skills and competences ( professional and personal, holistic and focused, technical and business minded)
Good relationsship within the team ( TRUST & engagement)
Create a strong network with key partners
Focus on value creation
Agile process - Rapid prototyping/piloting – ”PDCA” – involve client.
The competence centre is able to support the entrepreneur in all aspects of the developing process ( financial, organizational, technical, business and network creation)

Challenges:

Matching customers expectations from the beginning
Don´t over- focus on technology, but have at the same time focus on the market.
Build trust to important stakeholders, partners and sponsors
Create visibility of the product to stakeholders
Be realistic – it´s a learning process - Learn from your failures – which one was my best failure??

Workshop co-organizing organizations:
IDA, Society of Danish Engineers, Region Fyn, Odense, Denmark
PFF, Project Forum Fyn
FUHR, Forum for Human Resources
LENS Living Lab – INTESO Group in collaboration with
Toolmakers Cluster of Slovenia and
EU HORSE Project Consortia[1]
Odense Robotics
Technological Institute / Department of Robotics/ Odense

Which Language do you need in successful cooperation networking?
Prepared by Klaus Pannenbaecker, Global Project Management Advisor (DE)

You will answer, “Of course the English Language!”
“You are right, but we don´t mean the communication language.
We think about the technical terminology.”

Examples:

You produce exclusive wooden furniture “on demand.” Your clients can specify the outfit with a colour of the material as well as the size and the later use but are not able to work with wood.

A company is searching for specialists for building a bridge for rail and road traffic as well as pedestrians and cyclists.
Challenge:

Such kind of examples, as well as a broad range of ideas and opportunities in general, require a team that knows both the material and the manufacturing process for all tasks.

It is quite common that the project sponsor is looking for technical personnel with project-specific competencies – a
Solution:
Tediousendeavour in many cases. In networks, the project’s tasks can be accomplished faster and more effectively: Originally mainly personal relationships, later onToday it appears to be a given that large amounts of data and facts are planned with digital support, quality is assessed and verified in systematic ways, deliveries and services are organized just-in-time, functionalities are bought off well-regulated quality definitions, overall summarized in contract templates. with safe launch and concurrent training.
For such kind of projects, everybody involved should be savvy in a commonly known language and be able to apply it successfully. This technical language is Advanced Project Management, outlined by the “magical triangle” of:

Deliverables with a defined quality
Milestones along a defined timeline
A cost in a defined currency.

Networks can only be effective with a commonly usable technical language.

Cranefield College - Press Release (December 2016)
Prepared by Pieter Steyn, Principal of Cranefield College

Cranefield College is an accredited and registered private higher education institution offering a range of qualifications including PhD. Its academic programmes are available globally through Technology-enhanced Distance Learning, utilizing a state of the art Learning Management System (LMS). Classes, which are advisable to attend but not compulsory, are offered at Cranefield’s auditorium in Johannesburg and simultaneously streamed live online globally. This makes it possible for students to study from anywhere in the world. A PhD was recently awarded to a German citizen, where Cranefield’s academic qualifications enjoy full recognition.

Cranefield College’s academic qualifications are structured to best serve the leadership and management needs of organisations from many sectors in the economy. Its academic qualifications focus on value chain performance management, including programme-managing the organisation’s supply chain activities and project management portfolios. Due to its profound importance, leadership and management excellence for strategic success is strongly emphasized. In addition to the existing Master’s degree comprising mostly a dissertation, an additional Master’s in Value Chain Performance Management comprising module work only is in the making. A new Bachelor in Business Administration will follow.

Up to Postgraduate Diploma level students do one module of three month’s duration at a time, and classes are limited to one morning per month. Participating students have a choice between attending live sessions on campus, or interactively online. Where a student is unable to participate in a live session (due to a particular work situation or location, for instance), he or she can still subsequently view an online recording thereof.

Increasingly, employers prefer job-relevant education and training for improving the competence of employees and for providing them with the necessary skills to be of immediate benefit to their organisations. An accolade often received from students is: “what I learn from Cranefield today, I implemented in my work tomorrow”. Moreover, Cranefield graduates are profoundly successful in their career.

Copyright © 2017, LENS Living Lab - INTESO Group, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
info@3-lab.eu

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list