About us

Better Factory invites Small and Medium-sized Manufacturers (SMEs) to redesign their current product portfolio together with Business and Arts mentors and Technology experts.

Manufacturers can tap into disruptive product innovation that responds to new market demands while keeping production resources optimal with RAMP IoT platform.

Better Factory helps manufacturers to enter new markets with customizable, personalized product or service portfolio. Together with Business and Arts Mentors and technology partners, manufacturers can discover new business models and digitalise their factories to match the production of new or personalized products.

During the project, Better Factory will assign high-skilled Business and Arts experts to analyse the current product / service portfolio with the core knowledge from manufacturers, to redesign customizable products and service portfolios using new digital technologies. This may spark new product designs, business models or brands.

For SMEs to produce batches of new and personalized products requires transforming traditional factories into lean and agile production facilities. Better Factories provides an Open and Standardized Advance Production Planning and Scheduling (APPS) system for manufacturers to test commercial tools to optimize waste, energy, resources and logistic.

RAMP (Robotics Automation Marketplace) is a free and open IoT platform (FIWARE) running on state of the art servers, with access to cloud storage and computing, enabling connection with robots, sensors, cameras, AR/VR and other equipment. RAMP will provide 3D simulation tool to create Digital Twin for virtual testing, co-creation space for teams to collaborate online among other digital services.

About Better Factory

Better Factory brings together key actors in the European technology, art and innovation landscape to provide an integrated innovation framework and a European network to deliver a standardized solution for Manufacturing SMEs to invent and manufacture new and personalized products and create services around them.

The consortium coordinated by VTT (Finland), includes 28 partners from 18 European countries representing the Arts ecosystem – Competence centres- (INOVA, GLUON and WAAG); Technology competence centres (Fraunhofer IPA, AIMEN, Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana, Slovakia National Centre of Robotic, INESCTEC, Cyprus University of Technology); Industrial clusters (Transylvanian Furniture Cluster, Slovenian Tool and Die Development Centre, Latvian Federation of Food Companies / Food Products Quality Cluster, CLUTEX ‐ Klastr Technicke Textilie, Bydgoszcz Industrial Cluster Tool Valley, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Pécs‐Baranya, ICT Cluster and University of Oulu); Technology suppliers (INFOTECH, Top Data Science, Holonix, GESTALT Robotics and European Dynamics); Art supplier (In4Art); Business developer (Hermia Yrityskehitys Oy); Open Call management (FundingBox); Legal framework (time.lex); and Communication and Dissemination (Mobile World Capital Barcelona).