Today’s supply chains are complex and global. This makes them vulnerable to disruptions from pandemics, natural disasters, cybersecurity attacks or economic crises. However, companies need to consistently deliver high-quality products while also minimising non-value-adding activities.
A major obstacle to flexibility is the limited ability to share reliable, actionable data along the supply chain. But organisations need to understand when changes lead to chaotic behaviour with far-reaching consequences. The Flex4Res project addresses this challenge by developing solutions that enhance the reconfigurability of production services, ultimately strengthening the flexibility and the resilience of the European manufacturing industry.
An open, collaborative platform
Flex4Res provides an open platform for secure and sovereign exchange of data and services along the supply chain. This enables companies to reconfigure their production networks more easily, helping them maintain resilient value chains even when conditions swift unexpectedly [1].
Two toolboxes, one for resilience assessment and one for reconfiguration strategy, enable stakeholders along the supply chain to respond to different types of disruptions by quickly reconfiguring supply chains and production systems.
Built on standards
The project’s data spaces create a trusted framework for secure, sovereign exchange of data and services across the manufacturing ecosystem. This ensures interoperability and trust [2]. Services can also be downloaded and executed locally within a company’s own compute-to-data (C2D) environment. Within this setup, services can access and process data from local sources, such as machines and internal databases modelled as standardised Asset Administration Shells (AAS), as well as remote data made available through IDS or Pontus-X data spaces. The combination of local control and collaborative data exchange supports both security and resilience.
Resilient production scheduling in practice
One practical example comes from the Sidenor Group, a steel manufacturer producing a diverse portfolio of steel products. Their facilities include enterprise operations, warehouses and manufacturing plants, all integral components of their steel production infrastructure.
A production planner in one of Sidenor’s plants faces the challenge of updating schedules due to unexpected events, such as a machinery failure or a high-priority customer order. To react quickly, the planner retrieves a production scheduling service from the Pontus-X data space and runs it inside the company’s C2D environment, ensuring that sensitive data remains on-site.
The service pulls in local data through standardised AASs (such as machine status, material stocks and shift plans) [3] and integrated external data from IDS or Pontus-X nodes (such as logistics delays or supplier forecasts). It generates alternative production schedules and evaluates them with a resilience assessment module that calculates KPIs like Penalty of Change. The result is a resilient plan that balances efficiency with the ability to react to disruptions.
This example demonstrates how data spaces and local execution support robust decision-making, combining external intelligence with secure, private data usage to strengthen operational resilience.
Funding and disclaimer
Flex4Res has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101091903. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
References
- Alexopoulos, K., Weber, M., Trautner, T., Manns, M., Nikolakis, N., Weigold, M., & Engel, B. (2023). An industrial data-spaces framework for resilient manufacturing value chains. Procedia CIRP, 116, 299-304.
- Bakopoulos, E., Sipsas, K., Nikolakis, N., & Alexopoulos, K. (2024). A Digital Twin and Data Spaces framework towards Resilient Manufacturing Value Chains. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 58(19), 163-168.
- Industrial Digital Twin Association. (n.d.). Resilience assessment in industrial production. IndustrialDigitalTwin.org. https://industrialdigitaltwin.org/en/content-hub/submodels.