AFM will coordinate a PERTE valued in 245 million euros to transform the machine-tool and advanced manufacturing sector

AFM, the Spanish Association of Manufacturers of Machine Tools, Accessories, Components and Tools, has been gathering ideas from companies during recent months to prepare a PERTE (Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation) proposal to take a game-changing leap in the advanced manufacturing industry with a breakthrough project based on digitalisation

The project is named e-Machine, Digital Workshop and seeks to increase the added value and technological weight of products, thereby significantly increasing the turnover from company services through the use of digital resources. This will also reduce the environmental impact of processes, increase their efficiency and favour the ecological transition of the industry as a whole. Lastly, the project focuses on people, in an endeavour to generate an ecosystem with workers who are highly qualified in digital technologies for the industry.

The e-Machine, Digital Workshop project hinges on 3 instruments from which 44 high-impact measures will derive that cover both R&D activities and the first industrial deployment of enabling technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, 5G, Simulation and Digital Twins, Additive Manufacturing and Blockchain. Private investment in the project is estimated at 245 million euros and involves all the agents in the value chain of advanced manufacturing, from machinery manufacturers (machine-tools, components, control systems, inspection equipment, etc.) to machining workshops focused on a wide range of industries (automotive, aeronautics, energy, railway, etc.), as well as turn key system suppliers. All of the above will count on vigorous collaboration with providers of physical, logical and financial infrastructure and a numerous group of high-level representatives from the scientific and academic worlds, as well as technological and training centres.

The e-Machine, Digital Workshop project also relies on the collaboration of other customer sectors through similar projects that intend to multiply the tractor effect, in the search for synergies and combined learning.

The expected impact of the e-Machine, Digital Workshop project is 2,625 direct and indirect jobs during execution and another 2,600 direct jobs in the following years, with a multiplier effect of 2.8 in other industries. Sector turnover is also expected to increase by 14%, with an increase of 3 points in the contribution of the manufacturing industry to the national GDP. There will be 106 technological products generated, among which are prototypes, demos, software and methodologies, which will be protected by 73 intellectual property dossiers.

The e-Machine, Digital Workshop project falls within AFM’s R3 initiative, which seeks to transform the Spanish production model and increase the industry’s contribution to the Spanish GDP by short, medium and long-term actions.