MADE Competence Center

MADE's Digital and Sustainable Factory supports the enterprises in their digital transformation path towards Industry 4.0. It is part of the Industry 4.0 Italian ecosystem created by the Competence Centers and the Digital Innovation Hubs. MADE is one of the 8 italian Competence Centers, acknowledged as Digital Innovation Hub by European Union. The MADE vision is to lead companies digital and sustainable transformation. On one hand, MADE provides a set of knowledge, methods, technical and managerial skills on digital technologies to support companies in their digital transformation towards Industry 4.0. On the other hand, thanks to the large demo-center of over 2000 m^2, it provides an I4.0 – based pilot production facility for pioneering test, demonstration and development project realization. MADE mission is to lead companies digital and sustainable transformation, leading a complete industry migration towards digital transformation developed by the following phases: informing and showing Industry 4.0 technologies, explaining them by specific training activities, and then transferring and implementing technological solutions through projects (Test Before Invest). MADE is therefore proposed as a technical interlocutor to which companies can turn not only to manage activities of innovation, technology transfer, applied research and assistance during the implementation of 4.0 technologies, but also to receive a suitable support to reconsider their organizational and business models, suggesting strategic aspects to maintain their high competitive level. MADE is a public-private consortium attracting investments for more than 22M EUR in 2019-2021 horizon. It is composed of more than 47 partners clustered in: 4 Universities, 2 research facilities, 42 Manufacturing Companies including software technology providers and one public entity. Robotics are the thread connecting the areas. The focus is on human-machine and machine-machine collaboration. The first island accommodates a number of collaborative industrial robots of different sizes, which are used in the process to mount a fork to a motorbike frame, designed to operate safely when humans are present. The action starts with an AGV that can replan its route around the obstacles it meets on its way. This autonomous vehicle transports the front piece to the largest collaborative robot, which lifts it, relieving the human operator from the heavy load, towards the motorbike where it can be installed. At this point, smaller collaborative robots assist the operator in completing the assembly, by carrying out automatic and interactive procedures in full safety. In the second island, we see how an “Operator 4.0” is “augmented” through cyber-physical smart systems, and can handle traditional operations using wearable devices and software to manage and improve adaptive interaction between human and machine. The three assembly cubicles are used for different demonstration purposes, and each contains monitors with audio and visual instructions, visors for mixed and augmented reality and an exoskeleton to reduce muscle effort. Finally MADE is a Digital Innovation Hub official aknowledged by European Commission within JRC catalogue. MADE is coordinating EDIH Lombardia, candidate for European Digital Innovation Hub network, a consortium of 15 partners aiming at supporting industry digital transformation in Europe.