The project identifies an increasing pressure on EU manufacturers to be more efficient and innovative in their manufacturing processes. The cause of this pressure is identified by the project as increased production capacity in low-cost economies (LCE) and increased innovation and level of sophistication of supply chains in high-cost economies. The main problems undermining the competitiveness of SMEs are limited knowledge of lean/agile techniques; unawareness and limited understanding of regional governments and across organisations of the potential of lean/agile; lack of good practice and knowledge transfer to SMEs; lack of resources amongst SMEs; and inadequate training. Transnational cooperation is seen as the only way forward to address these issues appropriately, based on the view that they had not been solved adequately in the national contexts. The method applied is to use a regional model to improve manufacturing efficiency and as the initial core of the ERIP model, which is subsequently transferred across the NSR. Achievements: The project identified an increasing pressure on EU manufacturers to be more efficient and innovative in their processes. The cause of this pressure was identified by the project as increased production capacity in low-cost economies and increased innovation and level of sophistication of supply chains in high-cost economies.The main problems undermining the competitiveness of SMEs were limited knowledge of lean/agile techniques, limited understanding of regional governments, lack of knowledge transfer to SMEs, and a lack of resources amongst SMEs. The method applied was to use a regional model to improve manufacturing efficiency as the initial core of the ERIP model, which was subsequently transferred across the North Sea Region.DocumentsUGent HandbookWP4: Final ERIP MethodologyWP6: Final Evaluation ReportWP3: IPC Business PlanFor more information please visit: http://archive.northsearegion.eu/ivb/projects/details/&tid=72&back=yes