The future success lies in moving up the value chain. The manufacturing sector in Europe needs:

• To be made up of highly skilled, knowledge intensive, highly productive and innovative manufacturing businesses
• To deliver high quality, cost competitive goods and services into the global market place
• To introduce new products and processes to create new markets.

Although SMEs are the backbone of the EU economy, few are fulfilling their potential in terms of productivity and innovation:

• No widespread successful adoption of lean/agile manufacturing
• Limited understanding of lean/agile processes at every level within the organisation, resulting in a failure to embed this concept.

ERIP Approach

1. Create a robust network structure involving industry, public sector, business support agencies, centres of excellence, universities and six new Innovative Productivity Centres (IPC) as an interface with the capacity to deliver long-term sustainable change
2. Deliver transferable knowledge of new developments and innovative processes around lean/agile manufacturing
3. Implementation of the lean change methodology, trailed and measured by SME testers
4. Build up a sustainable trans-national network of Innovative Productivity Centres as a platform from which to deliver the new lean change methodology and supporting testers