The role of digitisation for improved strategy and decision making for EU manufacturing industries

Resilience has become one of the defining challenges and at the same time opportunities of the European manufacturing industry. In an era marked by global disruptions, supply chain vulnerabilities and rapid technological transformation, the ability of industries to anticipate, adapt and recover from shocks has never been more crucial. But achieving true resilience goes beyond short-term risk management – it requires long-term stategic adaptability built on data-driven decision-making, reconfigurable systems and digital innovation.

This is the central theme of the new position paper “Achieving resilience through reconfigurability: The role of digitisation for improved strategy and decision-making for EU manufacturing industries,” collaboratively written by Flex4Res and R3GROUP. The paper, authored by Emmanouil Bakopoulos and Kosmas Alexopoulos from the Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems & Automation (LMS) and Tjerk Timan from the Industrial Technical Center for Plastics and Composites (IPC), explores how European manufacturing can strengthen its adaptive capacity through reconfigurability and digital transformation.

The paper highlights how digitisation serves as a key enabler of resilience, offering manufacturers greater visibility across production networks, data-driven foresight and enhanced flexibility in responding to disruptions. It outlines a framework for resilience capability building, moving from risk identification and data integration to agile reconfiguration and strategic decision-making. Drawing on insights and pilot implementations from both Flex4Res and R3GROUP, the paper provides real-world examples of how digital tools, data spaces and smart reconfiguration strategies can be applied to strengthen industrial resilience.

Flex4Res contributes by demonstrating how secure and sovereign data exchange, powered by Gaia-X and International Data Spaces (IDS), enables flexible reconfiguration of production networks and supports supply chain adaptability. R3GROUP complements this approach by focusing on resilient reconfigurable production systems, integrating human-centric and technological dimensions to ensure sustainability and efficiency.

Together, these initiatives show that resilience in manufacturing is not a static goal but a continuous process. One that depends on the ability to reconfigure, collaborate and make informed decisions in real time.

Read the full paper: https://flex4res.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2025_Achieving-resilience-through-reconfigurability.pdf