The VI Impulse of the Connected Industry Award Winners Announced!
In November 2021, Madrid witnessed the winning projects of the VI Impulse of the Connected Industry Award. It concerns robotics and data digitization for elevators and vehicles. The jury selected two winning nominations and one honorable mention.
The economic endowment of € 6000 was divided between two professionals: Ignacio Pérez Bermejo from TK Elevator and Álvaro Jiménez from Saargumi. They are the quality experts of the projects. Álvaro López from the Pontifical University of Comillas received an honorable mention.
The President of the Observatory of Industry 4.0, Enrique Ramírez, commented that last year's crisis caused by the pandemic accelerated the digital transformation. The specialists claim what normally would have been done within five years was done in a much shorter period of time. Mr. Ramírez further commented that "there is a great opportunity to place our teams at the organization's center to overcome our resistance to change". He also stressed transparency, fluid communication, and nonstop training.
Ignacio Pérez Bermejo deserves credit for his winning project "Digitalization for Smart Services". It is all about boosting the connectivity in the lifting sector, using digital innovation at the service of urban mobility. The device serves elevators and escalators and reduces elevator downtime by half. It results in a significant increase in the city's availability and efficiency. "The implementation of this project has allowed us to have end-to-end visibility and traceability throughout our supply chain", explains Ignacio Pérez Bermejo.
Álváro Jiménez won with his project "Robotics and integral digitization of data in the gluing process and logistics of rubber joints for the automotive industry". It offered an increase in specific productivity of 50 %, freeing up more than 30 % of the process labor, safety improvement, and vehicle-person coexistence. On top of that, it further provided a minimal impact on the plant infrastructure and "zerohuman intervention" in the entire gluing process. For instance, the collaborative robots, autonomous logistics vehicles, and a complete data digitization network contribute in a way never seen before! It radically changes the way we see the future.
Álvaro López gained honorable mention for "CIC LAB, the research laboratory of the Chair of Connected Industry". There is a dual objective at the laboratory foundation. Student training is one part. The other is to channel the enormous talent in the ETSI ICAI and deal with the real problems of the industry. At the moment, the company is working on five projects of the patron companies of the Chair. Deep learning and advanced analytics represent some of the concepts being applied.
The jury presented the views and opinions of Carlos Bravo Fernandez, Director of Consulting and Innovation of Group-IPS: José Ignacio Gallego, Country Senior Officer Nokia: Juan Antonio Gómez Pintado, President of Via Ágora - Associación de Promotores; David González, Head of Mindmarket and Channels-SAP; Toni Medianero, Head of Private Sector - Fujitsu; and Bernardo Villazán, Honorary Member.
The Industry 4.0 Observatory is sponsored by Fujitsu, SAP and Group-IPS.
