After three years of research, collaboration and innovation, the Horizon Europe project Flex4Res will formally conclude on 31 December 2025. Co-funded by the European Union and involving 17 partners from six EU countries, Flex4Res has advanced a transformative vision for resilient manufacturing and delivered concrete tools, methods and lessons for the European manufacturing industry.

Today’s supplier networks are complex, multi-layered and interconnected. This makes them vulnerable to disruptions from unpredictable events. As a result, manufacturers are rethinking and reassessing their global supply chains and strive to make their production sites more flexible. To address these challenges, Flex4Res focused on strengthening the resilience of the European manufacturing industry by enabling manufacturers to withstand and recover faster from disruptions.

Since the project kick-off in January 2023, the project partners have worked intensively to deliver interoperable, standard-compliant solutions that boost supply chain resilience in the European manufacturing industry. Their work resulted in an open platform for secure and sovereign cross-company data exchange, grounded in recognised European data-sovereignty standards like Gaia-X, International Data Spaces and Asset Administration Shell technology. This platform supports dynamic reconfiguration of production networks.

The platform is complemented by two practical toolboxes: one for resilience assessment and one for reconfiguration planning, allowing manufacturers to anticipate disruptions and respond effectively by adjusting production flows or rerouting supply-chain paths. Additional knowledge-based smart tools complete the concept, offering actionable recommendations that support smarter decision-making.

All Flex4Res solutions were tested and validated in four industrial pilot settings spanning different production types. These pilots covered topics such as reconfiguration after a tool change, production planning optimisation, reconfiguration of manufacturing processes to supply planning optimisation.

The insights and results generated within the Flex4Res project lay the foundation for new projects and initiatives that will continue to strengthen Europe’s manufacturing landscape in the digital age. By enabling secure data exchange, flexible production networks and resilience-oriented decision-support, the project contributes to a more robust and competitive European industry.

Interested people can learn more about the project and its outcome here: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/projects-details/43108390/101091903

More information about the tools and methodologies are available here: https://flex4res.eu/methodologies/

Contact

For further information, media enquiries or request to access to Flex4Res results and deliverables, please contact the project coordinator:

Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems & Automation (LMS), Department of Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics at University of Patras, Greece

E-mail: [email protected]