The Municipality of Prato is the leader of the European SMARTY - Smart SMEs for Industry 4.0 project, funded under the Interreg Europe program. The project aims to change the way Structural Funds policies are implemented in the partner regions, through the improvement of regional policies which will be achieved through the increase of knowledge and the adoption of Industry 4.0 solutions and technologies by the small and medium-sized enterprises. The project aims to improve the partners' ability to implement policies to support SME innovation projects, in particular as regards investments in services for technological, strategic, organizational and commercial innovation, in line with regional strategies of intelligent specialization that support Industry 4.0 as a new paradigm that will guide the development of the industry in the coming years. SMARTY will implement inter-regional learning activities to identify, analyze and share solutions which - already adopted in a region - can help innovate the regional industrial systems of other partners.
The exchange of experiences and good practices will take place through thematic seminars, training seminars and case study visits focused on four themes:
• Production performance monitoring systems
• Modeling and predictive maintenance
• Virtual reality and simulation technologies
• Smart logistics and network management
At the end of this learning path, the partners will develop an action plan on how their respective regional policies will be improved, indicating the necessary actions, duration, actors, costs and sources of funding. These action plans will be integrated into the structural programs of the participating regions and states, with the aim of facilitating the adoption of Industry 4.0 solutions by SMEs, while strengthening their competitiveness.