An integrated B2B platform will enable the optimisation of supplies, logistics and exportation
AIDIMME, FEVAMA and MICUNA are involved in this initiative presented in Salzburg
- The European Project NIMBLE is framed within the actions proposed by the European Commission to bring the Industry 4.0 concept to the companies, from an integrated and homogeneous perspective. In fact, the NIMBLE initiative bases its schema in the architecture used in Industry 4.0 to develop its solutions.
The metal-processing, furniture, wood and packaging technology institute AIDIMME, the federation of wood and furniture companies of Valencian Community FEVAMA, and the childcare furniture manufacturer MICUNA, have participated in the NIMBLE project presentation, composed of 17 partners from 7 countries, which first meeting concluded last week in Salzburg.
The NIMBLE initiative, “Collaboration Network for Industry, Manufacturing, Business and Logistics in Europe”, aims at configure a collaboration network under the schema of a multi-sided B2B (Business to Business) network covering other B2B platforms, so that integration and data flow Exchange could happen in an open source environment, easing this way its future adaptation by sectors or geographical regions.

Representantives of the international consortium of the NIMBLE project, yesterday, in Salzburg (Austria).
Among the benefits of this integrated platform, it should be remarked the cost reduction, the ease of locating raw materials and products (and derived from this, a more agile and efficient prototype designing, optimised logistics, and the accessibility to specialised contents to break the barriers to exportation, such as required documentation and certifications and any other information that avoids laborious and costly processes, thus allowing the entrance to new markets. The special attention payed to the product life-cycle to ease its recycling, reuse or final assessment is another relevant benefit of this platform.
Privacy, reliability and security
Data Exchange in networks is a critical aspect for companies due to the private and reliable nature of transactions, so NIMBLE will provide a secure and reliable system to operate trusting in the platform, in line with the Digital Agenda 2020, that considers networks for the sustainable innovation and fair competition. Also the Internet of Things IoT technology is considered in the proposed furniture scenario.
Data protection is in the basis of the NIMBLE platform development, which will provide agile solutions based in the same architecture used in Industry 4.0 to boost specific “federations” of the platform (by sectors or regions), incorporating users from the beginning in order to be operational from the first year, from the three-year project duration.
MICUNA, children furniture
This way, the platform will progressively engage 1.000 up to 2.000 users, expected at the end of the Project, and it will work on 4 supply chains sectors: white goods, wooden houses, fashion fabrics, and child care furniture.
AIDIMME will also provide technical support to this last use case proposed by MICUNA, focused on childcare furniture, in order to define the needs of supplying, logistics and management applicable to the operability of the company. FEVAMA will act as catalyst in the engagement of supply companies in order to cover the whole supply chain, from raw materials to semi-elaborated products or finishing, also including fittings.
The three organisations will be in charge of incorporating the company to the platform, validating its functionality for the specific use case, which means a big challenge due to the great opportunities and solutions that provides to the business management, “in which process optimization is critical to be competitive today”, it has been pointed by the Operations Director of MICUNA, Jorge García.
For his part, the FEVAMA Project Manager, Marcos Sabater, has stressed the importance of bringing such an integrative platform as NIMBLE closer to the companies, “which enables to unify criteria in the furniture industry easing the collaboration opportunities, which are greatly needed actually in order to generate a competitive production environment of quality”, has specified.
MICUNA, FEVAMA and the Technology Institute AIDIMME start its participation in the R&D European project “Collaboration Network for Industry, Manufacturing, Business and Logistics in Europe, NIMBLE”, no. 723810 H2020-IND-CE-2016-17, with duration of 36 months and financed by the European Union within the Factories of the Future programme, in the research and innovation actions of the European Union.
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