CE4.0SME | Supporting Walloon businesses developing skills for a circular economy

The CE4.0SMEs project aims to support Walloon businesses throughout their skills development with regard to the circular economy. This will enable them to implement circular strategy(ies) within their company or their value chain, and to promote facilitating Industry 4.0 tools, in particular via the identification, collection and use of necessary data. Such support will be in the form of awareness campaigns, coaching, experimentation, dissemination and feedback. 

Context

Recent and ongoing crises highlight the risks and issues associated with energy consumption, raw material procurement, the necessity to always produce/sell more, fluctuating sales figures and the environment. The situation has become increasingly Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. 
Circular economy strategies encompass a number of potential solutions, supported by Industry 4.0 technologies, that can render businesses more resilient.  
Combining these two approaches appears essential for the development of production systems that are more efficient in terms energy and resource needs, therefore less carbon intensive. However, the circular economy and Industry 4.0 are simultaneously attractive and potentially paralysing for businesses, their deployment often being perceived as an immense challenge. Generally, this can be explained by a lack of knowledge in the field, which would enable them to transform circular and Industry 4.0 principles into concrete, feasible, realistic, pertinent and profitable action for their company (refer to the Walloon circular economy barometer and Walloon manufacturing SMEs’ digital maturity scale).

Aims and results 

The aim of the project is, via various actions, to support Walloon businesses in their appropriation of circular economy principles, based on their level of existing knowledge, their needs and their position in the value chain. Another associated aim is to demonstrate the pertinence of Industry 4.0 tools to facilitate, develop and accelerate the deployment of circular strategy, in particular through management and use of information and data.

Sirris

Throughout the project, content will be made available to allow businesses to understand the circular economy and to identify associated opportunities, together with the I4.0 tools that can help implement them. 

Approach

Within the framework of this project, the proposed approach is to consider Industry 4.0 associated instruments as a toolbox / technology tank enabling circular principles to be activated/operated/facilitated. Through such an approach, the circular economy acts as an aim and a framework for Industry 4.0 development, whilst Industry 4.0 activates/supports circular strategies. As such, the circular economy offers reasonable and reasoned promotion of Industry 4.0 (prevention of rebound effects, overequipment or underuse), and Industry 4.0 offers access to the necessary information for efficiency and efficacy of processes and their use, to assure that value is preserved.
To develop this approach, the proposed strategy initially involves focalising on skills development / enhanced maturity with regards to the circular economy for Walloon businesses, to enable them to implement strategy(ies) within their own business or value chain, to subsequently promote Industry 4.0 as a chosen strategic circular action. Business support will be ensured by:

• Massively increasing awareness among businesses that are not yet familiar enough with these concepts, by providing them with various digital tools enabling them, not only to better understand the circular economy, but also to conduct self-assessment, or to rapidly implement measurement and improvement action. 
• Coaching businesses looking to take on the challenge, but unaware of where to start 
  • Individually helping them to define the circular strategy(ies) that best suit their organisation (based on existing elements and their level of maturity). 
  • Collectively helping them to identify/collect/exploit the necessary information to implement circular value chains. 
• Supporting businesses looking to implement their first circular action via technological assessments and I4.0 expert training in the circular economy. 
• Promoting/disseminating the links between the circular economy and Industry 4.0.

Target group

Walloon companies (whatever their size) in the manufacturing industry with a de minimis budget.

Funding

Reference

• CE4.0SMEs/ Digital Wallonia - Industry of the future – Calls for projects CE for I4.0