The LeanPPD project is supported from both industrial and research perspectives, by a very strong consortium, composed by 12 leading European partners:
Fundación Labein (LABEIN)
Fundación LABEIN, Technological Research Centre is a private, independent, non-profit technological research & innovation centre, located in Derio, close to Bilbao, (Spain) with more than 50 years of experience in rendering services to enterprises. LABEIN is part of the larger research group called TECNALIA. TECNALIA has a total staff over 1.300 persons with a turnover of roughly 95 M€. LABEIN is the biggest organization in the group with more than 300 employees and 24,4 M€ turnover in 2006. LABEIN is continuously involved in an average range of about 40 RTD and Technology Transfer projects under a wide variety of European programmes mostly within the Frameworks (now the 7th) but also outside it. It has worked on more than 300 such projects since Spain joined the European Community. LABEIN also has a high participation under Local, Regional and National Research, Technology Transfer and Innovation Programmes.
Cranfield University (CU)
Cranfield University Positioned between traditional universities and business and industry, Cranfield combines the academic rigour and long term perspective of a university with the commercial and business focus of industry. The university educates students at postgraduate level on both professional development and degree-awarding course; they come either to enhance an already chosen career, or to move to a new one. 95% of our students enter relevant managerial, professional or technical positions in the workplace, or embark on further study, within six months of graduation. Our research income, measured as a percentage of our turnover, puts us as one of the top five research intensive universities in the UK alongside Oxford, Cambridge, and London’s Imperial College and UCL. These impressive statistics, coupled with our excellent links with industry, and our mission to create viable, practical and environmentally desirable solutions means we are uniquely placed for both students and corporate partners alike.
Rolls-Royce(R-R)
Rolls-Royce, a world-leading provider of power systems and services for use on land, at sea and in the air, operates in four global markets - civil aerospace, defence aerospace, marine and energy. Rolls-Royce has a broad customer base comprising 600 airlines, 4,000 corporate and utility aircraft and helicopter operators, 160 armed forces, more than 2,000 marine customers including 70 navies, and energy customers in 120 countries. The company now has a total of 54,000 gas turbines in service worldwide and they generate a demand for high-value services throughout their operational lives. Rolls-Royce is a technology leader, employing 38,000 people in offices, manufacturing and service facilities in 50 countries. Annual sales total £7.4 billion, of which 53 per cent are services revenues. The firm and announced order book is £26.1 billion, of which aftermarket services represent 38 per cent. Rolls-Royce continues to invest in core technologies, products, people and capabilities with the objective of broadening and strengthening the product portfolio, improving efficiency and enhancing the environmental performance of its products. The company seeks to add value for its customers with aftermarket services that will enhance the performance and reliability of its products. This approach is fundamental to developing and sustaining collaborative long-term relationships in all its markets.
University of Warwick (WARWICK)
Warwick Manufacturing Group, WMG, part of the School of Engineering at WARWICK, is a world-renowned centre of excellence for high quality, innovative research, traditionally working in manufacturing but in recent years moving into new spheres. WMG was established by Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya in 1980. WMG now employs over 200 full time staff with a further 150 associates dedicated to developing innovative research projects and sharing our knowledge with a wide range of businesses and individuals through collaboration, knowledge transfer schemes, PhD supervision, postgraduate study and bespoke executive training. Our research is publicly and privately funded and always involves industry closely in conception, development and delivery. Our research teams are comprised of staff from both academic and industrial backgrounds with a wide range of specialties including engineers, physical scientists, materials scientists, mathematicians, designers, IT specialists, social scientists, economists and knowledge transfer experts. WMG is a truly international organisation: we run teaching and research centres in six overseas countries and provide expert advice to many overseas governments and companies.
Institut für angewandte Systemtechnik Bremen GmbH (ATB)
ATB Institute for Applied Systems Technology Bremen GmbH located in Bremen (Germany), was founded in 1991 and has the status of a non-profit organisation. The shareholders of ATB are the State of Bremen, University of Bremen and a group of industrial companies. Among others, ATB shareholders are Daimler-Chrysler, STN ATLAS Elektronik, and also a number of SMEs that are located in the region of Bremen. The main strategic business areas of ATB are Systems Analysis & Design, Quality Management and Software Systems Technology.
Volkswagen A.G. (VW)
With production facilities in 15 countries and a broad product range stretching from the high-efficient “blue motion” passenger car to luxury and sports cars, light & heavy duty trucks and commercial vehicles, the Volkswagen Group has grown up to one of the largest globally active automotive manufacturers with world-wide sales of roughly 5,7 million units in 2006 (market share 9,3 %). The company consists of nine independent brands from six European countries. Since many years VW is market leader in Western Europe with last year sales of about 3.9 million cars (market share 17,2 %). Volkswagen Group’s annual turnover exceeded 95 billion EUROS in 2005 with an expenditure for R&D of approx. 4.1 billion EUROS. The average number of employees worldwide was 345.000 of which 21.880 were occupied in Group-wide RTD activities. Volkswagen's aim is to produce vehicles with ever increasing quality, safety and technology standards and at the same time reduce fuel consumption and emission levels. VW is interested in the application of new developments in all automotive areas not only to meet all relevant technical and legal requirements but also to satisfy customer demands on a consistently high level. Volkswagen's Electric Engineering Development is also participating at AUTOSAR and in the field of developing new standards as well as research for new simulation solutions. It is also responsible for identifying, evaluating and transferring innovative technologies to advanced engineering or series development departments of all brands of the Volkswagen Group i.e. AUDI (Germany), SKODA (Czech Republic), SEAT (Spain) etc. Volkswagen`s extensive investigations in new test procedures started already in the early seventieth, today there is a long time of experience in this field. In collaboration with the his suppliers and software development companies, e.g. Dassault, investigations were carried out in the past to optimise the development process by means of simulation and testing.
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
EPFL (www.epfl.ch) is one of the two Ecoles Polytechniques fédérales in Switzerland. Like its sister institution, ETHZ, it has three missions: education, research and technology transfer at the highest international level. Associated with several specialised research institutes, the two EPFs form the EPF domain, which is directly dependent on the Federal Department of Home Affairs. EPFL offers 13 complete study programs at the Bachelor's and Master's levels in engineering, basic sciences, computer and communication sciences, life sciences, civil engineering, architecture / environment, and management of technology. The Management of Technology has been an important effort within EPFL over the last several years, and it has come to fruition in the form of the new College of Management of Technology (CDM), which was launched in October 2004. Within the CDM, the Chair in Corporate Strategy & Innovation was one of the first Chairs established. Previous relevant experience The Chair of Corporate Strategy & Innovation (CSI) is a research laboratory recently established at EPFL to promote scholarship in the area of technology and innovation management (TIM). CSI is focused on issues of corporate strategy and innovation, or how large, multi-business firms acquire and react to new technologies. These new technologies can be developed within the firm, come from a start-up venture or competitor, or come from a source completely external to the firm and its market. The research in CSI thus is built around three interrelated themes: (1) technological entry, product development, and "creative destruction" (2) alliances and "open innovation" within the value network and (3) Internet strategy
Visteon Engineering Services Ltd (VES)
Visteon manufactures components which the Vehicle Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) assembles into the vehicle. The design of the product is achieved collaboratively between the OEM and Visteon. The OEM wants to control the appearance of the product in line with it’s brand strategy. While Visteon brings the technology satisfy the overall needs of the OEM. However, this technology can bring conflicting constraints that may affect the Customers brand strategy. Visteon’s strength is its understanding of the vehicle environment and the OEMs design methodologies, which it aims to balance. However, this information is tacit knowledge which is distributed amongst a number of experienced Engineers. A tool that enables Visteon to collect, analyse and distribute these un-written requirements from the customer and balance them against the Technical constraints of Visteon Technology would provide significant opportunity at front end of the design process to improve customer satisfaction.
SISTEPLANT (SIS)
Sisteplant is an industrial engineering and SW developer company founded in 1984 and is the Spanish leading company in the software and consultancy in the area of Lean Manufacturing. The company is located in Derio, in the Technological Park of Bizkaia – Spain and has more than 80 employees, with a common aim of reaching satisfactory implementations with a practical focus that guarantees booth short term results and consistent management practices in the customer companies. SISTEPLANT offers and implements solutions relating all industrial aspects: manufacturing strategies and organization as agile manufacturing, process improvement and automation, industrial software for plant data acquisition and maintenance management, new industrial plants lay out, handling and warehouses, TPM, etc. SISTEPLANT is the creator of the software system CAPTOR – PRISMA, for real-time shop floor and supply-chain-management. Since its foundation SISTEPLANT has always been concerned with R&D, resulting in leader software solutions, as CAPTOR for Plant Data Acquisition & Plant Management (MES) and PRISMA for Maintenance Management (CAMS). SISTEPLANT has finished a European project named SPIDER-WIN for supply-chain management, integrating CAPTOR and other Internet software in a collaborative approach.As Spanish leader in software development and consultancy, requirements engineering, specification, development and implementation of methodology and tools for production management, SISTEPLANT will be involved in the exploitation of the LEAN-PPD project. SISTEPLANT is going to sell the tools to be developed and the methodology for the application of LEAN-PPD tools and services in Europe. The LEAN-PPD tools and services will be distributed using the SISTEPLANT network in Europe and overseas (Mexico, Brazil, China…).
Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI)
Politecnico di Milano is the most important technical university in Italy and one of the biggest in Europe. Since 1850 Politecnico di Milano has been active in several scientific and technical fields. In particular, Management and Production Engineering Master of Science course is active since 1985. As regards the research activities and its organisation, there are 9 Faculties (1 of Design, 2 of Architecture and 6 of Engineering) and 21 Departments related to the main scientific and technological disciplines. Politecnico di Milano is linked with several academic institutions all over the word, for joining research activities, staff and students exchanges. Department of Economics, Management and Industrial Engineering (DIG – Dipartimento di Ingegneria Gestionale) will be involved in this project with its specific competences in the fields of Innovation Management, Production Management, Product Development, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and its experience on training games. In particular, Politecnico di Milano has a strong experience in serious games have being a developer of the PRIME game development and has being the organizer of the Learning with Games Conference in 2007. The Department has been involved in several European and national projects such as PLANTFABER, MAIN-E, IMS-GEM, CE-NET, PROMISE, INCOCO-S, PRIME and SOCRADES. Furthermore it has been the coordinator of the IMS Network of Excellence and it is currently the coordinator of IMS2020 project.
INDESIT
Indesit Company S.p.A. is one of the three largest European appliance manufacturers. The Group's principal activities are to design and produce household appliances; water heaters, fridges, freezers, washing machines, cookers, ovens, dish washers and other appliances. Indesit Company also provides third parties with the capabilities and technologies required in order to network any electrical device making it accessible on a local or remote basis. Set up in 1975, Indesit Company has grown 20 times in the last 20 years thanks to a relentless stream of innovations. The Group operates in Italy, other European countries and other parts of the world. The company takes advantage of over 100 years of cumulative engineering experience, a highly motivated, qualified and inventive staff and an extensive network of partnerships with major companies and universities. The R&D division of Indesit Company owns all the patents on Home Automation, Energy Management, Electronics controls and including all resources, skills and capabilities which made it possible for Indesit to appear first on the market with a fully networked set of digital household appliances, communicating with each other and capable of exchanging information over Internet.
SITECH
The Polish company Sitech Sp. z.o.o. is part of the Sitech group with development and manufacturing locations in Poland, Germany and China. The core business of Sitech is the development and manufacturing of steel seat structures and entire seats for vehicles. Sitech Sp. z o.o manufactures steel seat structures for the models Polo, Gulf, Passat as well as Touareg and Porsche Cayenne in Polkowice/Poland. Since beginning of production in the year 1999 Sitech Sp. z o. o. produces annually approx. 9 million structure components in Polkowice. The vertical range of manufacture covers the entire value chain. In Polkowice are e.g. produced the main parts for the seat of a VW Golf. The metal structure is pressed from coils, welded together, painted and finally mounted to form a seat frame.The customers of the Sitech are not only the brand VOLKSWAGEN passenger cars and other company brands such as VWN, AUDI, Skoda and Porsche as external customers, but also other car manufacturers in international market. By the creation of its own seat development Sitech positioned itself successfully as development supplier at automotive market. Sitech is able to realise cost saving effects for OEM within all areas of seat production. Sitech shows, how component manufacturing within the affiliated group can be done successfully. With Sitech as concept- and price-regulation OEM can play off completely its advantages and secure its strategic independence. At the end of 2006 Sitech group employed approximately 3,300 employees. Those were distributed on the locations of the Sitech seat technology GmbH, Wolfsburg, Emden, and Hanover, the location of the Sitech Sp. z o. o. Polkowice, Poland and the holding Sitech Dongchang of automotives Seating Technology Ltd. Shanghai, China.