Hot forging industry is an important activity for Europe. However, the last events (Ukrainian war, Covid pandemic and the transition from ICE to EV in the automotive industry) have forced the European forgers to a critical situation. Energy and raw materials are more expensive than ever, and the industrial competitiveness of renown companies is very much in doubt. In this contest, OPTFORGE aims at drastically increasing the OEE of European forging companies by the development of advanced final properties prediction models, the invention of novel tool coatings, the implementation of new digital solutions and the embedment of all these results in an innovative surveillance system that will be able to detect and warn about non‐robust and dangerous forging process practices.