Advanced Manufacturing Centres, Practical Model to Boost Technology Transfer in Manufacturing

Establishing collaboration strategies with interdisciplinary networks in research is a crucial success factor for the companies in any sector, especially in manufacturing for aeronautics. In the aeronautical supply chain, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) lack of these types of alliances with universities and other research institutions, which could give them access to shared and specialized knowledge, may strictly limit those companies to learning from their own experience. One way to break this dynamic for industrial companies is to be an active part of research, development, and innovation centres. In this paper, a study to create new advanced manufacturing centres is presented, centres whose activities are focused on Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 5-7. The approach is based on a project management methodology, and it is applied to the aeronautical sector in the Basque Country. An initial study of the international experience and state of the art in this type of facility, as well as an analysis of the current socioeconomic environment of the Basque Country are presented. A benchmark study was done to identify the key processes that this centre must promote for this initiative to succeed, or those areas of knowledge that can make or break the initiative. Finally, the results showed a definitive picture for establishing an advanced manufacturing centre in the Basque Country. This work lays both the foundations of knowledge in the sector and the difficulties noted, so it can serve as guidance for similar initiatives.We thanks the strong support to the centre of the Basque Government (Dept of Economic development and infrastructures and SPRI) and Council of the Province of Biscay, Technological park of Zamudio and University of the Basque Country. Special thanks to Eng. Alfredo Lopez-Diez for the ideas and daily efforts to develop the centre model along with ITP Aero, Danobat Group and the other 76 company partners. Thanks are due to Joserra Otegi from UPV/EHU and funds from Excellence groups of the Basque university system no. IT1337-19 (from Basque Government). Centre CFAA can be looked up at: https://www.ehu.eus/en/web/CFAA/hom