Smart factories are characterised by smart processes, smart machines, smart tools and smart products as well as smart logistics operations. These generate large amounts of data, which can be used for analysis and fault prevention, as well as the optimisation of the quality of manufacturing processes and products. DAT4.ZERO is a Digitally-enhanced Quality Management System (DQM) that gathers and organizes data from a Distributed Multi-sensor Network, which, when combined with a DQM Toolkit and Modeling and Simulation Layer, and further integrated with existing Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), offers adequate levels of data accuracy and precision for effective decision-support and problem-solving – utilizing smart, dynamic feedback and feed-forward mechanisms to contribute towards the achievement of Zero Defect Manufacturing (ZDM) in smart factories and their ecosystems. The aim is to Integrate smart, cost-effective sensors and actuators for process simulation, monitoring and control; develop real-time data validation and integrity strategies within actual production lines; demonstrate innovative data management strategies as an integrated approach to ZDM; & develop strategies for rapid line qualification and reconfiguration. Deployed in 5 distinct industrial pilot lines we address the following primary objective: Develop and demonstrate an innovative DQM system and deployment strategy for supporting European manufacturing industry in realizing ZDM in highly dynamic, high-value, high-mix, low-volume production contexts, by effective selection and integration of sensors and actuators for process monitoring and control, a DQM platform with an architecture that provides reliable and secure knowledge extraction to ensure integrity of data, & strategies for advanced realtime data analysis and modeling in multiple domains and sectors that will increase quality, reduce ramp-up times and decrease time-to-market.

REMODEL will enable new production environments, where the manufacturing of complex products composed of multiple wires and cables by means of dual-arm robots is not only possible, but fully integrated with the product design chain. This result will be achieved by exploiting the result of a previous project called WIRES, were basic tools for the manipulation of electric wires have been developed. Moreover, new perception and interaction capabilities will be embedded into the robot to be effective in the industrial manufacturing scenario. REMODEL will bring new opportunities to human-intensive labor manufacturing processes like the one dealing with cables and wires, where the routing and fitting tasks are calling for advanced handling techniques. The REMODEL robotic ability will impact several production scenarios in which human work is widely adopted due to the complexity in the objects, materials and manipulation tasks, characterized unpredictable initial configuration as well as large deformability and plasticity. Activities involving mass production, such as wiring harness manufacturing for automotive and appliances, are moving outside Europe due to the high labour cost and to the repetitiveness of the tasks that produces high psychophysical stress in the workers. In other cases, such as the switchgear wiring and the wiring harness manufacturing for the aerospace sector, the need of increasing production flexibility, reliability and traceability of the product as well as reduce costs and time to market implies the adoption of innovative tools to maintain proper competitiveness and answer the market requests. To proof the effectiveness of the REMODEL outcomes, four industrial manufacturing use cases provided by the industrial partners and covering five different domains, i.e. the production and assembly of wiring harnesses in the automotive and the aerospace field, the switchgear wiring and the manufacturing of medical consumables, will be developed.

Manufacturing companies are continuously facing the challenge of operating their manufacturing processes and systems in order to deliver the required production rates of high quality products of increasing complexity, with limited use and waste of resources. "Zero Defect Manufacturing" (ZDM) is a recent paradigm aiming at going beyond traditional six-sigma approaches in highly technology intensive and strategic European manufacturing sectors through new knowledge-based approaches. The ZDM paradigm is of key importance to manage production quality targets in advanced manufacturing industries. The implementation of this paradigm in industry requires innovative defect management and control methods, novel technologies for in-line inspection and integration of knowledge management and ICT tools for smart and sustainable decisions in complex industrial scenarios, which are not available in the market. The aim of the ForZDM project is to develop and demonstrate tools to support the rapid deployment of ZDM solutions in industry and design more competitive and robust multi-stage manufacturing systems. The proposed ZDM approach is based on the combined adoption of new knowledge-based data-gathering and root-cause analysis solutions to reduce the generation of defects as well as new on-line defect management and improved production traceability solutions to mitigate the propagation of defects along the production line stages. This will be achieved through the proper integration of innovative enabling technologies, such as cyber-physical systems, selective inspection, advanced analytics and integrated process and part-flow control solutions.