“We must continue to focus on transforming and modernising our industry in order to be competitive on a global level”

AR.- How do you see the next edition of Advanced Factories in an economic context that is still complex and in which Europe must continue to evolve industrially in order to compete in a very competitive global context?

O.I.- In a context of global inflation and in a situation in which three major powers such as China, the United States and Europe are fighting for innovation, we must continue to focus on transforming and modernising our industry in order to be competitive on a global level. To do this, we must focus on innovation, relocation and talent attraction, and rely on automation and robotics to achieve these goals.

In its seventh edition, Advanced Factories has become the largest industrial automation and robotics fair in southern Europe because for three days it brings together the latest solutions and innovations linked to Industry 4.0 technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, artificial vision, the Digital Twin, data analytics, IoT and machine learning, among others. In addition to offering a space for the transfer of knowledge and know-how with the Industry 4.0 Congress, in which to discover best practices, success stories, projects or management models to promote the digitisation of production centres and their industrial transformation.

AR.- What is the event's strategy, both in terms of the exhibition and the congress, in relation to new trends in both the automotive industry and multimodal, sustainable and safe mobility? How can it be linked to the upcoming transformation towards the electric vehicle, which will be a major pole at SEAT Martorell from 2025 onwards?

O.I.- The Industry 4.0 Congress will bring together heads of major automotive companies as well as automotive component manufacturers to analyse the challenges they face in moving towards a more sustainable industry. Precisely one of these challenges is the promotion of electric vehicles. To this end, we will be joined by professionals from Ford, which has chosen the Almussafes plant in Valencia as the best positioned to manufacture electric vehicles based on a new state-of-the-art platform. We will also learn about the work of SEAT Componentes in transforming its Prat de Llobregat plant in Barcelona to manufacture components for its range of electric cars. 

In addition, we will also have public representatives who will analyse the impact that the PERTE of the electric vehicle approved by the Government will have on the sector and how the Next Generation funds will be used to promote the creation of battery factories in our country.

AR.- How do you continue to articulate cooperation with the automotive industry with examples such as CIAC's Racó d'Innovació?

O.I.- As every year, we are once again counting on the collaboration of CIAC, the Automotive Industry Cluster of Catalonia, which is holding the eighth edition of the Racó d'Innovació event at Advanced Factories 2023, with the aim of showcasing the most innovative developments in terms of technology, product, process or service in the automotive sector. In addition, this year CIAC will also organise a debate session at the Industry 4.0 Congress in which experts will analyse the importance of innovation together with the restructuring plans of the Next Generation funds in the automotive sector and will share the keys to optimising the scope of the new financing proposals. 

AR.- The event is already starting to contemplate the evolution towards the Industry 5.0 concept. Can we talk about a realistic progression in this sense and what can companies find in Advanced Factories in this sense?

O.I.-Industry 5.0 completes the Industry 4.0 approach but puts more emphasis not only on the use of the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution but also on the impact that this transformation will have on industrial workers and society. In this sense, Industry 5.0 goes a step further with the aim of achieving a more resilient industry, with a more sustainable production and putting the worker at the centre. In this sense, at Advanced Factories we have been seeing proposals for a couple of years now that move in this direction, with a low impact on energy consumption and emissions, and that are committed to circularity (thinking about the product beyond its life in use).

A small example of these two aspects can be seen in the use of collaborative robots: on the one hand, how their use can facilitate the incorporation of people with limited mobility into the workplace. On the other hand, how energy can be recovered through regenerative braking of the cobot's movements. These are just a few examples, but they give us a clear picture of what it means to integrate the 5.0 perspective from the conception of processes and products.

AR.- The event dimension is being extended with Advanced Machine Tools, how does this commitment reinforce Advanced Factories and how are both events going to feed back on each other and mutually strengthen each other?

O.I.- After six editions organising Advanced Factories in Barcelona, we have realised the lack of representation that machine tools have had lately both in Barcelona and in the Levante area, including Aragon. That is why AMT - Advanced Machine Tools was born, the new commercial platform for state-of-the-art machine tools that will be held every two years in conjunction with Advanced Factories. 

AMT - Advanced Machine Tools is linked to the first stage of the manufacturing process with machines used to treat and shape metal parts, such as chassis and components for the automotive industry, parts for the aeronautical sector, metal construction, railways and hotel and catering machinery, to name but a few. Advanced Factories, on the other hand, is associated with a more advanced level of production when the raw material is already specifically treated and adapted for use in assembly production. So both events undoubtedly offer multiple synergy options for visitors, who will be able to find connections in terms of following the different stages of production, although each event will be specialised in its own sector.

AR.- What new incentives are opening up at both events for SMEs and startups?

O.I.- 90% of the industrial business fabric in Spain is made up of SMEs. That is why we have always focused on the small and medium-sized companies in our country, with the aim of bringing them the latest innovation and that they can also bet on automation and robotics to improve their productivity. 

In addition, Advanced Factories hosts every year the Industry Startup Forum, a space that brings together business leaders in the sector, potential partners, investors and entrepreneurs so that they can share their innovative solutions, establish synergies and develop the most disruptive projects applied to the smart and connected factory. 

From 18 to 20 April, Fira Barcelona - Gran Vía will bring together the Spanish industrial ecosystem across the entire value chain, with more than 7,000 industrial companies and over 100 organisations represented through employers' associations, associations, technology clusters, public administrations, professional associations and universities, as well as technology companies and manufacturing manufacturers. They all seek to discover the latest solutions in industrial automation, robotics and new 4.0 technologies that entrepreneurs in our country are working on in order to establish synergies and boost technology transfer in the industrial sector. 

AR.- Sustainability, supply chain visibility, cutting-edge digitalisation, what are the most outstanding proposals at Advanced Factories in these fields and what other technological vectors will be the focus of attention from 18 to 20 April?

O.I.- In this edition, the congress will address how the use of automation, robotics, Artificial Intelligence and technologies such as virtual reality, artificial vision or the digital twin are key to improving the efficiency of industrial plants. Connectivity architectures that enable these solutions to be robust both in the physical sense and in terms of data integrity will be analysed. Given the proven potential of Artificial Intelligence as an element of business competitiveness, the validity of the data on which it is based is key. Moreover, the vulnerability of our data structures will be a cross-cutting issue throughout the three-day congress at the Industrial Cybersecurity Forum.

The human factor as a catalyst for the potential of AI in decision-making and the preparation of employees in skills for its use will also be at the centre of the debate in the Artificial Intelligence Forum at the Industry 4.0 Congress. The congress will also take a look into the future with technologies such as generative AI or metaverse in the industrial sector. And we will present industrial experiences such as those of Antolin, Relats, BSH, Sanofi, Nestlé, Premo and Cepsa.

Lea esta entrevista en castellano

Interview published in AutoRevista 2.378