ZERO³

Project description

ZERO³ tackles a core challenge of Austrian manufacturing: how to increase sustainability in production while maintaining and even improving competitiveness. Many companies are under pressure to enhance environmental, economic and social performance, but often lack a reliable, up-to-date data basis across their value streams and a clear understanding of individual bottlenecks and potentials.

This is where ZERO³ comes in. For the first time, the objective of establishing a comprehensive, value-stream-oriented data foundation is explicitly anchored in a Zero Defect Manufacturing approach. By combining AI algorithms, robotic system solutions and a dedicated “Sustainability Monitoring Platform”, production processes can be analysed, assessed and optimised holistically. Companies gain an objective view of their ZERO³ status – from quality losses and resource and energy consumption to selected social aspects.

In several industrial use cases, concrete implementation solutions for identified ZERO³ bottlenecks are developed and tested in real production environments. The impact of these measures on productivity, quality and sustainability is systematically evaluated. ZERO³ thus delivers actionable answers to key questions: Which investments generate the highest added value? Which KPIs are suitable to measure and improve sustainability? And how can know-how on feasibility and implementation be transferred across the Austrian manufacturing landscape?

Project objectives and technical innovation

The overarching objective of ZERO³ is to establish a new generation of sustainable production in Austria – ZERO³ production: resource-efficient, economically viable and socially responsible. Central to this is a reliable, up-to-date data basis across all value streams and its translation into concrete action fields.

The key innovations are:

• Value-stream-based Sustainability Monitoring Platform that integrates production data from multiple sources, reveals ZERO³ bottlenecks and highlights optimisation potentials.
• AI algorithms for Zero Defect Manufacturing that detect quality deviations, resource losses and process inefficiencies and generate targeted recommendations for action.
• Robotic system solutions as enabling technologies to automate inspection, monitoring and optimisation tasks directly within the production process in a repeatable way.
• Assessment models and KPIs that make environmental, economic and social sustainability in manufacturing measurable and comparable – as a basis for investment decisions and strategic roadmaps.

Benefits for the market, research, and end users

ZERO³ delivers tangible benefits for industry, technology partners and the Austrian manufacturing ecosystem.

• For manufacturing companies: Transparent insight into value-stream-related bottlenecks, solid decision support for investments, reduced scrap and downtime costs, improved energy and resource efficiency, and increased productivity.
• For technology and research partners: Real-world use cases for zero-defect manufacturing, AI in production and sustainability assessment, plus new methods for data-driven decision support.
• For Austria as a production location: Enhanced competitiveness and sustainability of domestic manufacturing in line with the FFG and FTI “Production of the Future” initiative – and a scalable model for ZERO³ production across industries.