Abstract
(Englisch)
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The European jewelry industry has been experiencing increasing commercial competition from countries outside Europe, most notably in the Far East, where jewelry production has been expanding at a rate of 10% per annum. In order to be competitive again, European jewelry industry has to adapt itself to modern manufacturing technologies and design methods, as survey's by two jewelry sector networks have shown. The micro jewelry SME's need help and advise for implementing modern technology in their companies. The European jewelry industry has been experiencing increasing commercial competition from countries outside Europe, most notably in the Far East, where jewelry production has been expanding at a rate of 10% per annum. In order to be competitive again, European jewelry industry has to adapt itself to modern manufacturing technologies and design methods, as survey's by two jewelry sector networks have shown. The micro jewelry SME's need help and advise for implementing modern technology in their companies.
Therefore a virtual institute, called 'THE EUROPEAN VIRTUAL INSTITUTE FOR JEWELRY TECHNOLOGY (acronym VI-JET)' has bee started on January 1st. This VI will be a provider of services and knowledge transfer to the European jewelry industry on a commercial basis. The Virtual Institute will do so by:
· advising on and implementing in jewellery industry modern methods of management, marketing, design and production in order to enhance profitability and competitiveness of this line of business in the EU
· offering of a number of unique products and services to clients
· creating a network of experts, expertise and products in the EU to advise and help the sector
· transferring the latest state of the art technology to the industry
· stimulating R&D and training for the industry
The transfer of products, services and know-how to the industry will be achieved by installing a central helpdesk, local contact points, regional centres, an internet presence and publications.
The partners are chosen especially for their expertise in management, legal matters, IT, design, marketing and manufacturing and material technology and are expected to be able to help transform the jewelry sector into a modern manufacturing and commerce industry. At least four of them have extensive expertise in the field of jewelry and/ or precious stones, others are knowledgeable in modern design, manufacturing and material technology, legal matters and business management.
The technical objective of the project is to transfer the latest 'state of the art' technology to the industry. This state of the art will be gathered from R&D (part of it own research of partners and in future VI-JET), publications, seminars, courses, conferences and databases all over the world. Innovation of this project will be:
- setting up of a European wide provider of services and products for advising, training & transfer of research results
- implementing modern technology in jewellery industry on marketing, design and manufacturing,
- extensive use of IT support for a low tech industry, properly localised and user-friendly,
- improving the organisation of companies by application of best-practice methods and bench-marking, hitherto unavailable on such a wide scale.
The VI will use all possible sources to help the industry become the most competitive in the world. A lead in IT, structural training and modern production technologies appears to be the most effective. All activities and services will be supported by novel IT infrastructure that will be built within the project's framework and will be based on requirements from VI-JET project actors. The IT system that will be implemented will conform to the latest standards and recommendations regarding Internet based business-to-business (B2B) systems and will sustain VI-JET user's communication, collaboration and transactional activities.
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