Agile Manufacturing as a Service through AI Autonomous Agents

The goal of the project is the creation of the MaaSAI System, a comprehensive digital system to automate and facilitate interactions between suppliers of manufacturing systems (Providers) and manufacturing companies (Consumers) in a Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS) ecosystem, in an agile, efficient and transparent manner. The MaaSAI System aims to revolutionise manufacturing and remanufacturing processes by facilitating access to flexible and decentralised capacities, through the MaaS business model, that extends the principles of the service-oriented economy to the manufacturing industry. The MaaSAI System aims to contribute to the reduction of the heavy investments that manufacturers have traditionally had to make to set up and maintain their operations. With an emphasis on production flexibility, agility and responsiveness, the MaaSAI System enables on-demand sustainable manufacturing, optimising resource utilisation, facilitating the transition towards circular facilities, and promoting better integration of the value chain. The MaaSAI project leverages on Explainable Artificial Intelligence (xAI) in autonomous agents to negotiate the use of manufacturing capacities between providers and consumers in a dynamic MaaS ecosystem. The incorporation of secure, and real-time data exchange between participating companies ensures fast response times and improves collaboration. The MaaSAI System represents a paradigm shift that enables manufacturers to access and utilise on-demand production capabilities, further increasing efficiency and lowering barriers to entry for SMEs. The MaaSAI project will deploy 3 main key exploitable results: 1) MaaSAI Cloud MaaS Marketplace; 2) MaaSAI Provider Suite; 3) MaaSAI. The MaaSAI System will be demonstrated in 5 Pilots of European companies from different sectors: metal machining, gears and mechanical power transmission, biomaterials, food processing, and electronics manufacturing.