CO-VERSATILE achieved its aim of increasing the adaptation capacity, resilience and flexibility of the European manufacturing sector to satisfy a sudden rise in demand for vital medical supplies and equipment and support Europe in improving its response and preparedness during pandemics.

CO-VERSATILE was built upon research and innovation industry-driven initiatives to deliver demonstrators of a flexible 48-hour industrial response capability at scale and to cope with sudden spikes in demand for strategic products. The project focussed four key objectives:

  • Deliver a rapid response to the ongoing emergency situation in the re-orientation of production capacities.
  • Set up an accessible and democratic ‘Digital Technopole ’ for the re-orientation and repurposing of production capacities to meet the urgent needs of our societies for essential medical supplies and equipment.
  • Validate the proper operation of the ‘Digital Technopole’ on seven selected Manufacturing Settings to demonstrate a flexible 48-hour industrial response capability at scale, to ramp up production in response to sudden future spikes in demand of strategic products, for instance medical equipment such as PPE, respirators, for requalification or release of production lines.
  • To assure the sustainability of the ‘Digital Technopole’ and the multiplication of the offered services to the European Manufacturing Industry to achieve wide replication.

The work was structured in 1-6 Work Packages (WPs) which were designed to ensure a rapid, sustainable and replicable repurposing of manufacturing processes for vital medical equipment. CO-VERSATILE leveraged key elements from the Lean Start-up Methodology. The developments will be iterative and broken down into several Build-Measure-Learn cycles adapted to the project needs.

Adaptive and resilient production and supply chain methods and solutions for urgent need of vital medical supplies and equipment | CO-VERSATILE Project | H2020 | CORDIS | European Commission (europa.eu)