THE EUROPEAN SMES OF THE PLASTIC SECTOR WILL HAVE THEIR PORTAL AND VIRTUAL SERVICE CENTRE IN 2006

The platform will provide the companies of the plastic products value chain with a wide variety of on-line technological services

The supply chain of plastic products in Europe includes around 40000 companies, mainly SMEs, which employ nearly one million people, with a processing capacity of over 30 million tons of plastic material per year and with a combined turnover of over 100 billion Euro. This industry operates in a great variety of end sectors, many of which are becoming fiercely competitive with fast-growing requirements in cost, time and quality.

The e-SeSME Project (Electronic Services for SMEs in the Plastics Supply Chain), co-financed by the European Union through its eTEN programme, is backed by a consortium of eleven partners AITIIP, ARMINES, CCG, CEFAMOL, CENTIMFE, GAIKER, IPTS METALCHEM, PLASTIASITE, RAPRA Technology, University of Minho and ASCAMM Technology Centre as the project coordinator of five European countries (France, Portugal, Spain, Poland and Great Britain), together with other sectoral and technological entities (EuPC, ISTMA-Europe, TECOS  and CCTI) with consultative functions. Project started on June 1st, 2005 and will last until November 30th, 2006

The mission of the portal and the virtual service centre for the plastics industry (CVP) is to sell high-quality specialised technological services to companies in the geographic scope of Europe through an easy, functional and profitable Internet platform.

The CVP includes the areas of design, moulds, production and assembly of plastic parts as well as customer supply, and will improve the development and innovation potential of the European companies in this industry sector, in particular SMEs.

Among the on-line services planned in the CVP, the following can be highlighted:  eEngineering (simulation, design, costing), eLearning (specialised sectoral training courses), technical information (reports, expert advising, hot lines, technology watch), digital services (data bases, useful links, intelligent software), competitive intelligence (technology, environment, market, competition) and brokerage of sector-oriented innovation.

The CVP concept has already been tested successfully in Portugal, Spain and the south of France in a previous project supported by the Interreg III-B Sudoe programme for the promotion of regional development and continues now with the e-SeSME project for market validation in all Europe prior to the CVP commercial launching at the end of 2006. The total budget for the e-SeSME project amounts to 1.8 million Euro, from which 890000 Eurore a contribution of the European Commission through its eTEN programme.