POYO is focussing on maintenance processes, i.e. preventing problems instead of solving them, in order to increase the efficiency in the production process of the ports in the North Sea Region and thereby to enlarge competitiveness and innovation opportunities.

POYO is strengthening and empowering networks to create an international cluster in the North Sea Area, thereby laying the basis for knowledge transfer on innovative maintenance techniques and the development of an EU standard towards certification of all maintenance techniques.

As a main result, 4 physical Centres of Excellence will bring together industry/SME and vocational education to bundle knowledge and experience on maintenance issues. An action plan and a handbook will foster European certification on maintenance courses.

Aim
POYO will strengthen and empower the networks in the North Sea Area to become an international cluster, so knowledge transfer in the field of innovative maintenance techniques will take place and European certification can be fostered.

The binding factor in the strengthening of the cluster will be to come towards a standard on certification of all maintenance techniques. This will enable the industry, policymakers and knowledge institutes to focus to their core competences, reaching innovation and economic growth for the whole area.

Certification also means education. Especially with innovative techniques like adhesive bonding, the only way to ensure conformity to certification standards is by getting and keeping staff up to date through training.

Background
The ports in the North Sea Area play a vital role in the economical situation. Not only do they handle about 90% of EU trade with third countries and about 30% of intra-EU traffic, they also consist of large industrial areas where industrial companies in different sectors establish their manufacturing companies.

All North Sea ports are facing similar challenges. They want to increase production, stay economically sound and keep their leading role. Furthermore demographical issues play a role: It has become increasingly difficult to attract sufficiently skilled employees, whilst a considerable amount of existing technical staff is about to retire. This means that a lot of effort needs to be put into education and recruitment of people to work in the harbour.

The third challenge that the port areas face, is the upcoming competition. Emerging markets, like China, show a huge increase in throughput and investment in port areas over the last years. The labour costs are very low there and there is not so much focus on environmental issues as in Europe.

POYO addresses these challenges by addressing a common process that is of major importance to all industry in port areas and also to the SME's involved.

The Lisbon strategy puts knowledge and innovation at the heart of European growth. This is facilitated by POYO by the knowledge transfer of innovative maintenance techniques between different industrial sectors and developing standards and certification, which improves innovation.

The innovative technique of adhesive bonding will be used as a test case within the sectors of automotive, aircraft, shipbuilding and the petrochemical industry in the North Sea Area (At this moment this technique is only certified in Germany).

At this moment some networks are established in the areas of the different POYO partners, existing of industry, policy makers and research institutes. We aim to strengthen and empower these networks to become real international clusters.

• State of the art-inventory on maintenance techniques and the skills needed;
• 4 physical centres of excellence;
• POYO portal, digital platform for training, and exchanges of experiences between different sectors;
• 4 digital courses on maintenance;
• Network of 500 companies in at least five countries;
• Action plan and Handbook for a European certification on maintenance courses.