| Summary: | Manufacturers in the resourceful Northern Peripheral and Arctic (NPA) region are mostly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Facing challenges primarily caused by the size and location of enterprises, these SMEs are constantly driven to take new measures to survive from the fierce competition against its domestic and international competitors, under the industrial environments of globalization of markets, rapidly changing customer needs, manufacturing paradigm shift to personalization, and the coming era of Industry 4.0. Originally aiming at enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs in the NPA region, a novel concept for small-scale intelligent manufacturing systems (SIMS) has been put forward and introduced [5] regarding its design objectives and applicable technologies. The major purpose of this project is to further develop the concept of SIMS in order to support SMEs in overcoming challenges from changing customer needs and unstable market conditions, transforming their manufacturing processes towards personalized production, and adapting themselves to the upcoming Industry 4.0 era
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