Bringing together a consortium of 14 partners from 8 EU countries, the project introduces an ecosystem that seamlessly merges AI with human-centric manufacturing. Designed in compliance with the European Union’s AI Act and GDPR, MANUFACTOR aims to protect the industrial workforce, reverse talent erosion, and reduce new operator onboarding times by more than 35%.
Modern factories face severe structural challenges, including digital skills shortages, high job turnover among younger generations, and ergonomics burden due to the physical stress, strain, or wear-and-tear. Musculoskeletal disorders currently affect three out of five industrial workers in Europe.
MANUFACTOR addresses these crises by replacing clumsy, body-worn physical hardware like exoskeletons with an elegant, intelligent, and unobtrusive human-adaptive assistance layer.
Expected Benefits
- For workers, it reduces physical pain, lowers mental stress, and boosts confidence by over 20%.
- For managers, it saves up to €1M annually per medium-sized plant by cutting employee onboarding times by 35%, reducing manufacturing errors by 20%, and lowering injury-related absences.
Our solution will be validated across two learning factories and three major industrial pilots: Hitachi Energy, Volkswagen Autoeuropa, and FILL.
“MANUFACTOR starts from the belief that future manufacturing should strengthen people’s skills, confidence, and well-being. As coordinator, the University of Skövde is proud to support a collaboration where research, technology development, industrial experience, and ethical perspectives come together around a shared goal: creating practical solutions that can work in real workplaces. By focusing on trust, usability, and adaptability, we aim to help make manufacturing across Europe more inclusive, attractive, and ready for the needs of tomorrow’s workforce.”
Masood Fathi, MANUFACTOR Project Coordinator, University of Skövde
Partners:
- Högskolan i Skövde (HIS)
- Panepistimio Patron-Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems & Automation (LMS)
- Uppsala Universitet (UU)
- Technische Universität Darmstadt (TUDa)
- Università Politecnica delle Marche (UNIVPM)
- U-Sense.IT srl (USIT)
- Netcompany S.A. (NETCOM)
- Viscando AB (VIS)
- ViewPointsystem GMBH (VPS)
- FILL Gesellschaft MBH (FILL)
- Hitachi Energy Sweden AB (HE)
- Volkswagen Autoeuropa (VWAE)
- Teaching Factory – Competence Center (TFCC)
- F6S Network Ireland Limited (F6S)