An extended Value Chain model for performance Prediction and Optimisation of product and process Lifecycles for SMEs

The ValuePOLE project is focused on delivering a model, an ICT tool to help decision makers in SME to maximise their competitive position with a minimum investment of resources.
Competitive advantage and sustainability for European manufacturers require that they are competitive in many domains. Traditionally a manufacturer would be competitive if they produced a product that met the quality, cost and delivery requirements of the market. Today and in the next decades, European industry in general, and SME firms in particular, are presented with many conflicting performance objectives;
Improvement of efficiency in the entire value chain in order to meet ‘better, cheaper, faster’ demands
Meeting the ‘greener, safer, securer’ policy demands
Juggling strategies for incremental and breakthrough innovation in product and process development

The objective of ValueEPOLE
The primary objective of this project is to develop and implement a ValuePOLE ICT tool with a supporting model and methodology. The ValuePOLE tool will prioritise the best Value improvement opportunities for the SME practitioner from a portfolio of potential New Products or Process Improvements. This will enable the decision maker to rapidly identify the risk/reward position of any project or combination of projects vis-à-vis a suite of pre-defined key performance indicators.
ValuePOLE contains:
A new Predictive Performance tool for SMEs, to maximise value creation in the entire product, process life cycles.
A model for performance Prediction and Optimisation of the product and process Lifecycles in SME value chains.
A methodology that goes ‘beyond lean’ because it enables organisations to better deploy its resources to be both operationally effective as well as strategically flexible

ValuePOLE will support organisations for improvements in processes and innovations in products based on either existing or new technologies.

The partners include University of Limerick, University of Karlova and 5 SME's. The project is funded by EU/FP7.