MAASive project was created with this aim, to enhance the resilience of manufacturing companies in response to the challenges posed by rapidly evolving markets.

Nowadays, competition transcends individual companies and extends to their systems of companies – suppliers, buyers, technology and financial partners – referred to as ‘value networks’. Today’s value networks face the imperative of bolstering their resilience to navigate the increasingly volatile economic environment.

Horizon project MAASive (Manufacturing-as-a-Service to Increase Resilience in Value Networks) aims to develop new models to increase the resilience of value networks by leveraging Manufacturing-as-a-Service, a flexible sourcing approach that entails collaboration among value network members by sharing production capacity and harnessing digital technologies to achieve greater efficiency and reliability.

The primary objective is to maximise existing resources within value networks by providing industries with a tool kit that amalgamates established methods and technologies tailored to the MaaS framework, supplemented by new models and technologies developed as part of the project. Through an interconnected network, the tool kit facilitates seamless access for manufacturers to on-demand service providers, enabling swift and efficient use of production services and equipment.

Over 36 months, the project endeavours to build up European manufacturing companies’ resilience against unforeseen events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This type of service-oriented approach allows companies to quickly adapt to critical events and resume production even amidst unforeseen circumstances, mitigating interruptions in the supply of essential materials and components.
A large number of European companies under-utilise their production equipment, which hints at the substantial potential for increased production in the EU without the need of additional investment.

Politecnico di Milano will provide the conceptual foundations for the proposed models while contributing to the development of simulation models and supporting the dissemination of the project results.

The researchers from the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering involved are Margherita Pero, Antonio Masi, Franco Chiriacò and Adeline Athina Abou Ali.

The project is led by Aalborg University (Denmark). In addition to Politecnico di Milano, partners include: Hamburg University of Technology (Germany) École Centrale de Nantes (France), Kamstrup AS (Denmark), Arcelik AŞ (Turkey), Artico SA (Romania), Ilpea Plastik Ve Kaucuk Urunleri Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi (Turkey), Industrie Ilpea Romania Srl (Romania), Smartopt Bilisim Teknolojileri A.Ş. (Turkey), Txt E-Tech SRL (Italy), Etk Ems Skanderborg AS (Denmark).