SMILE-DIH (Smart Manufacturing Innovation for Lean Excellence center) is a European Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) founded in Parma in 2018 as a non-profit association (legally recognised), by the Unione Parmense degli Industriali and the University of Parma.

We are part of both I4MS (network of European DIHs) and the Italian network of Confindustria DIHs to support technological transfer between research centers (Universities, Competence Centers, Institutes and private bodies) and manufacturing industries (in particular SMEs and Mid- cap) as well as Public Administrations, in changing their business models through:

• the digitalisation of operational processes in order to make them more efficient and functional;
• the implementation of innovative and streamlined methodologies, supported by intelligent technologies, such as cyber-physical systems (Cyber-Physical System or CPS), Internet of Things (IoT and IIoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics (autonomous and collaborative ), Cyber security, High Performance Computing (HPC).

By applying rigorously bottom-up and inclusive criteria, we have mapped the Italian innovation ecosystem, structured the business model of our DIH and defined the portfolio of services offered in order to accelerate the competitiveness of companies and, more generally, of the system territorial economy in which we are inserted.

The development of new technologies and new applications, the dissemination and exchange of good practices in their use, the promotion of new business models and the development of more open, transparent and replicable innovation processes is the added value of our proposal, in line with the European I4MS project, within which we were born.

Every day we work to affirm and grow a collaborative community capable of:

• discover and test new technologies;
• apply Lean methodologies supported by IT tools integrated with the production environment and the workers operating in the field;
• meet the needs of a set of stakeholders made up of manufacturing companies, solution providers and P.A .;
• develop a series of prototype solutions;
• disseminate use cases;
• combining technologies with adequate and sustainable business models;
• financial instruments, tax breaks and tenders to support digital transformation.

To learn more, SMILE-DIH data sheet on the Smart Specialization Platform catalog of the European Commission.