A service based approach to manufacturing a product is one level of servitization, but taking this concept to an entire factory to produce highly personalised items is an extremely ambitious plan, one that could potentially be normal in the future.
The collaboration is between three companies who are pooling their core strengths together.
- KUKA, would develop the robot-based automated plant.
- MHP to provide its digitalisation expertise, offering consultancy on the manufacturing approach throughout the project phase, and delivering integrated systems.
- Munich Re would oversee the business model with integrated risk management and finance models.
Together, the three partners aim to digitalise the whole value chain, establish a high quality end-to-end data flow, and connect areas and systems in the production development process.
Smart factory as a service concept, will reportedly independently and flexibly produce different product types in any quantity and entirely fulfil clients’ changing demand for customised products.
The project could represent a fully integrated value creation chain and this could enable companies to overcome the challenges of the future via a completely digitalised production process.
According to KUKA, the service could shorten new products’ time to market by up to 30%, therefore significantly improving one of the most competitive factors for manufacturers.
Smart factory as a service demonstrates an ambitious attitude toward the future of flexible manufacturing.
The project will reportedly be capable of manufacturing, packaging and delivering a highly customised product in any capacity in an extremely short cycle time.
