Next-generation smart factories, which use advanced digital technology to improve efficiency, are the focus of a collaboration between packaging manufacturer Crown Holdings Inc. and Swansea University.

Swansea’s Cinzia Giannetti at the College of Engineering is working with Crown’s R&D center in the U.K. to use new data analytics techniques and digital technologies to improve production efficiency. One such example is cyber-manufacturing, which links together data from different machines, creating smart production lines that can adapt to change and recover from failure more quickly.

Drawing on Crown’s expertise in the high-speed manufacture of metal packaging, the three-year study will focus on improving machines’ rapid decision-making capabilities to optimize production processes. With unique access to Crown’s plant data, the project will develop robust computational models that can be used in the company’s smart factories to make predictions about machine failures and optimize operational efficiencies, with the ultimate aim of decreasing waste and reducing downtime.

This project is part of the Innovative Materials, Processing, and Numerical Technologies (IMPACT) operation, a £35 million ($39.8 million) semi-autonomous research institute that will provide future-proof, highly specialized laboratories with a dynamic environment for collaboration between industry and academia.

IMPACT is funded in part by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh government and Swansea University.