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E-MED TEX-NET - Cluster for the Development of a Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Network in the Textile Clothing Sector - 410
Eumedis Project number: 410
EC Project code: 410
Contract "signature" date: 2002-05-28
Planned start date: 2002-05-29
Planned duration: 30 months
Planned end date: 2004-11-28
Actual start date: 2002-05-29
Total Budget: 1.549.521,00 ?
EC Contribution:
1.239.617,00 €
Sector: Industry, research and innovation
Background:
E-Med Tex-Net is at the present time very relevant. The importance of the Textile and Clothing sector in the economies of the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries was stressed in the October 2003 Communication from the Commission entitled “The future of the textiles and clothing sector in the enlarged European Union”, as well as in the discussion of the European Parliament regarding this Communication, and their vote dated 29 January 2004. The future of the Textile and Clothing sector in the EU is endangered particularly because of severe competition from China and other developing countries. The parliamentarians stressed the need to establish specific aid programmes, and initiatives which can aid SMEs with regards to research and development as well as non-technologic innovation. The parliamentarians emphasised the importance to introduce measures which would encourage the use of products which are manufactured under conditions which respect workers’ fundamental rights, as well as the environment. The document thus concerned only enterprises in Europe, but the Textile and Clothing sector in south MEDA countries will have to face the consequences of decisions made in Europe.
This project addresses some of the concerns of the EC (and of the USA, with a loss of 200.000 jobs over the last years – which have gone to Asia. EC-MED must make efforts in non-price field (cannot compete on price in China). This means that companies in the T/C sector must make efforts regarding among others design; must see themselves (and develop towards) being co-contractors rather than sub contractors; must be able to react rapidly on the market, and show flexibility.
Objectives:
Overall Objectives
• To reinforce the partnership relation and cooperation between north and south in a strategic sector for the Mediterranean countries namely the Textile/Clothing sector (T/C).
• To contribute to the enhancement of the global competitiveness of the T/C sector in South Mediterranean countries.
Specific Objectives
• To promote existing and develop human Networks of excellence among key players directly associated to the TC Industries across the Mediterranean Region. These human networks will be supported by a pilot portal and e-market place.
Description:
The project is divided into three distinct inter-related sub-projects:
SP1: Inter-enterprise Knowledge Base;
SP2: Evaluation and Benchmarking System; and
SP3: Training on Information Systems and Tools.
The first sub-project is basically a pilot portal for the T/C sector, which offers two major levels of services to the industry:
• the first level concerns a market / industry knowledge base, which will incorporate information on market data, news and announcements, industry overview etc, and will be accessible over the Internet by end-users;
• the second level enables the matching between demand and supply (contractor's orders and subcontractor's offerings), with the use of an intelligent and secure matching too. End users will have the ability to make requests for business partnerships and initiate such cooperation using electronic means.
The second sub-project focuses on the implementation of an Evaluation and Benchmarking system, which will enable T/C industries to identify their strengths and weaknesses and change their business priorities according to industry standards and best practice factors. This tool will incorporate a competitive reference database according to industry), standard factors, assisting the benchmarking tool in the whole process of identifying best practices. It is foreseen that the data maintained in this database will be used in the matching process of SP 1 in order to provide a qualitative dimension in the whole procedure.
The third sub-project concerns the development and offering of training courses in the following areas: e-commerce, competitiveness and usage of tools that will be developed within SP1 and SP2. These courses will be addressed to the local industry community and will be delivered by local experts who will be trained by the partners responsible for the three courses. Further, an electronic version of the training programmes will be available for users who have access to the Internet.
Activities with horizontal focus.
In addition to the above-mentioned sub-projects, the partners will undertake the overall technical integration of the three SPs together with extensive dissemination activities to the Mediterranean T/C industry.
Dissemination and exploitation activities will take place during the whole project life-cycle together with administrative and technical management activities, ensuring the high quality of the offered services and the project deliverables.
Finally considerable thought has been given to the future deployment of the project achievements. The whole scheme of services could become the basis for an overall qualitative certification mechanism, enabling and facilitating secure / certified B2B e-commerce transactions for the TC sector. The certification scheme will be supported by the local industry authorities, e.g., associations / chambers, acting as trusted third partners nodes.
E-MED TEX-NET is a quite complex project.
• It is large (16 partners and 4 active sub-contractors);
• It is multinational (11 countries);
• It is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. An example is the fact that the international language in some of the South Med countries is English, in others is French, not to mention the mother tongues in the involved countries (French, Greek, Arabic dialects).
It involves multiple technologies and disciplines, all IT centred or IT supported (Large Scale Databases, e-commerce, Marketing and Economics, International Trade, Textile-Clothing related disciplines), but all serving one very important industrial sector in the region. It is therefore thematically focussed and more important end-user oriented. It is a typical technology transfer project, but not just that. Its objective is to achieve technology transfer and diffusion through active cooperation and not the typical recipient scenario.
It will produce considerable tangible and exploitable results (on-line Knowledge Base, partnership tool, on-line Benchmarking, on-line Instructor). All participants will be actively involved in the development and evaluation of the above services and will contribute, according to their expertise and capacities.
The critical methodology aspects related to the project, taking into account all above peculiarities, are:
Methods of Implementation (Structure of Work plan-Phasing-End user feedback)
The overall Work Plan methodology serves the objectives of such a complex and large-scale project. The approach adopted can be summarised in the following measures:
• Establish decentralised but converging activities (the three Sub-Projects). For each SP one Driver and two co-drivers are appointed. Their role is to coordinate all activities in their SPs, while keeping in touch and closely following the activities of the other SPs both directly and through liaising with the Project and Technical Managers. The drivers and co-drivers have been selected primarily based on their expertise and capacities, but also based on a fair representation of all countries. This is not just for political reasons. The main reason is to diffuse responsibilities throughout the Consortium to enable efficient monitoring in a hierarchical way, but also horizontally (across all countries).
• Establish Concurrent Phasing of Sub-Projects. Three distinct Phases are foreseen for all 3 SPs, namely: The Analysis-Specification Phase during which the overall objective will be to analyse the user needs and the sub-project framework (SP1 & SP2) and to prepare the Training Material (SP3). End users (the Core User Group) will be actively involved both in SP1 and SP2, providing their needs and feedback on the proposed functionality of the Services. The feed will be consolidated in the Design - Tools Adaptation and Implementation Phase, which mainly concerns SP1 and SP2. On-site training will have already been initiated at this stage (SP3). During the Evaluation and Final Integration Phase, which is the most important in the project's lifecycle, the end users' involvement will be decisive. They will be actively involved in trials (Core User Group) and provide feedback for the fine-tuning of the Services and the Training.
Integration of SPs.
The Methodology selected for the Integration of the SPs and the streamlining of all their activities was to identify specific horizontal-integrative activities. These activities are of strategic nature and hence, inevitably, more or less centralised. The rationale is that the final services must be integrated on a uniform platform, so a partner experienced in the technical coordination of large-scale projects should have the overall responsibility for homogenising the design, adaptation and implementation. Moreover it would not make sense and it would result in a waste of resources to establish independent dissemination mechanisms for the 3 SPs. Finally of utmost importance is the need to maintain a continuous and homogeneous roadmap towards exploitation and sustainability of project results, gradually enhancing the initial consensus and vision of the project. This means that partners from all SPs must participate in joint exploitation and sustainability planning activities.
Results:
1. On-line knowledge base and on-line matching of offer and demand, on-line Benchmarking service, leading to company certification on-site and on-line training.
2. Increased awareness, IT literacy, and connectivity for SMC TC companies. Establishment of a sustainable human and electronic network, offering valuable services and information content.
3. Improvement of operations, production methods, marketing and financial control through comparison to reference model (Benchmarking). Improvement of market shares through better understanding of the market, the requirements of large contractors, increased market opportunities.
Project Management:
The Coordinator of the project is the Applicant CCIP, which appoints as representative for the day-to-day follow up of the project.
Project Committees
The Coordination Committee of the Project (CCP) will be composed of: The Coordinator, The Project Manager The Technical Manager, The Sub Project Drivers, one representative appointed by each of the partners, not being represented by either of the above Managers.
The Technical Committee (TC) will be composed of the Technical Manager, Sub-project Drivers and Co-Drivers, WP Leaders and experts appointed by other partners.
The Exploitation Committee (EC) will form an Integral Part of the Project's management structure.
The EC will be responsible for establishing tasks, deliverables and the appropriate resources to ensure that the project adheres to market needs and that project partners are fully aware of market situation and of the Exploitation Strategy. The EC will consist of representatives from all partners interested in the exploitation of the results. The EC will also seek consensus among exploiting partners in the form of a Consortium IPR agreement.
The Exploitation Manager will be appointed at the project kick-off meeting.
Web site: http://www.emedtex.net
Project Coordinator: Guy, LAVENANT (more details ...)
Leading partner
Participating Partners
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