Expertise

Digitalization is accessible to all, from the biggest company to the smallest one. And we know how to talk with each of them.

We can sup­port com­pa­nies in the oppor­tu­ni­ty ana­ly­sis pha­se, under­stan­ding the need for inno­va­tion from A tech­no­lo­gi­cal, prac­ti­cal and busi­ness-dri­ven point of view. We can help defining an imple­men­ta­tion stra­te­gy, invol­ving tech­ni­cal managers and inte­rac­ting with the com­pa­nies’ ope­ra­tio­nal figu­res. We sup­port the laun­ch of trial expe­ri­men­ts, brin­ging the tech­no­lo­gies into the prototype production space, whe­re it is pos­si­ble to eva­lua­te KPIs and Bene­fit/ Cost ratio to asso­cia­te with fore­seen invest­men­ts. The last step is a long-term stra­te­gy exe­cu­tion, which hel­ps defi­ning the plan to tran­sform trials into full-time ser­vi­ces.

Advanced Robotics

Advanced robotics systems ena­ble the tran­sfor­ma­tion of indu­strial ope­ra­tions. Differently from conventional robo­ts, today it is pos­si­ble to leve­ra­ge on higher-level secu­ri­ty mecha­ni­sms, fle­xi­ble inte­gra­bi­li­ty and mobi­li­ty. The­se impro­ve­men­ts per­mit a faster setup and pro­gram­ming, pre­ser­ving the effi­cien­cy and relia­bi­li­ty of day-by-day ope­ra­tions. This is possible thanks to col­la­bo­ra­ti­ve robo­ts, which can seam­les­sly inte­ract with ope­ra­tors, gua­ran­teeing 360° safe­ty whi­le avoi­ding expen­si­ve and inva­si­ve pro­tec­tion bar­riers, and can be pro­gram­med accor­din­g to modern ICT-dri­ven para­digms and inte­gra­ted into digi­tal virtual envi­ron­ments to be simu­la­ted befo­re the com­mis­sio­ning.

Distributed Intelligence

Distributed intelligence systems are based on the use of cooperative systems, organized in hardware or software components, that independently handle specialized tasks to achieve system-level goals and a high degree of flexibility. Industrial edges allow data produced by sensor-rich assets like machines, equipment and devices, to be pre-processed in real-time, merging industrial IoT data with operational data. Companies can also take advantage of a Cloud system where it is possible to extensively process the aggregated data, execute critical actions and develop AI-driven business intelligence logics.

Extended Reality (XR)

Exten­ded rea­li­ty (XR) repre­sen­ts the mixture of aug­men­ted rea­li­ty (AR), vir­tual rea­li­ty (VR) and mixed rea­li­ty (MR) tech­no­lo­gies, whi­ch tac­kle various manu­fac­tu­ring domains such as trai­ning, edu­ca­tion, security and simu­la­tion. Thanks to com­mer­cial­ly avai­la­ble hard­ware, the manu­fac­tu­ring indu­stry has seen an increase in the use of advan­ced XR tech­no­lo­gies, shor­te­ning the gap bet­ween 3D modelling and vir­tual envi­ron­ment crea­tion. Tech­no­lo­gies such as holo­gra­phic viewers, vir­tual glas­ses, smart glas­ses and smart hel­mets, beco­me items to design vir­tual simu­la­tion environments and improve the operator’s functionality, impacting the manu­fac­tu­ring busi­ness para­digm itself.

Cyber Security & Privacy

The adoption of indu­stry 4.0 tech­no­lo­gies brings new cyber risks to the ope­ra­tio­ns and to the busi­ness itself. Because of the interconnection of smart fac­to­ry tech­no­lo­gies, cyber threa­ts are frequent and expo­se peo­ple, tools, phy­si­cal pro­ces­ses, and intel­lec­tual pro­per­ty to a high risk. The game has chan­ged: in the past, cyber­se­cu­ri­ty aimed at pre­ven­ting only the con­nec­tions between external and internal areas; today, with machi­nes con­nec­ted to the cloud, cyber­se­cu­ri­ty aims at gua­ran­teeing a ver­ti­cal, acti­ve and exhau­sti­ve IT/ OT pro­tec­tion.

Flexibility, Ergonomics & Safety

All around the world, manu­fac­tu­ring indu­stries con­stan­tly try to impro­ve their pro­duc­ti­ve per­for­man­ce. Lean Pro­duc­tion and World Class Manu­fac­tu­ring are the most popu­lar stra­te­gies that com­pa­nies adopt to boo­st their pro­duc­tion effi­cien­cy, and they can be implemented not only by big enterprises, but also by SMEs and other realities. Digi­tal tech­no­lo­gies sup­ports the adop­tion of tho­se effective prac­ti­ces, both in the pro­cess desi­gn pha­se and at an ope­ra­tio­nal level.

Predictive Maintenance

Pre­dic­ti­ve main­te­nan­ce aims at using data ana­ly­sis tools and tech­ni­ques to detect ope­ra­tional ano­ma­lies and pos­si­ble equi­p­ment defec­ts, in order to fix them befo­re the actual fai­lu­re. Pre­dic­ti­ve main­te­nan­ce allo­ws to reduce the fre­quen­cy of maintenance services as much as pos­si­ble, pre­ven­ting unplan­ned repairs and costs. However, it requires to defi­ne a com­plex plan which deals with data acqui­si­tion, data aggre­ga­tion, cyber­se­cu­ri­ty, and data mana­ge­ment poli­cies. It inclu­des desi­gning sophisticated logics and instru­men­ts, as well as the pro­per user inter­fa­ce to sup­port main­te­nan­ce staff in efficiently per­forming their job.

Next Generation Network

The con­cept of next generation net­works is based on enabling exten­si­ve and distri­bu­ted broad­band net­works to con­nect com­pa­nies and sho­p­floors. Inco­ming mobi­le wire­less con­nec­ti­vi­ty, like 5G and WiFi6, will boo­st con­nec­tion speed, impro­ve­ bat­te­ry life, increa­se net­work capa­ci­ty and enlarge the band­wid­th with respect to pre­vious gene­ra­tions net­work. When it comes to Indu­stry 4.0 use cases, it will faci­li­ta­te the adop­tion of ultra low-power IoT sen­sors, low laten­cy for impro­ved XR and real-time loca­tion ser­vi­ces (RTLS).

Digital Retrofitting

Adop­ting Indu­stry 4.0 is not always related to huge invest­ments or manu­fac­tu­ring greenfield: most of the times, it means iden­ti­fying and applying the pro­per digi­tal COTS avai­la­ble tech­no­lo­gies, allowing for example to gather data whi­ch can then be used to inform deci­sion-makers in real time. It is about taking small steps, stu­dy­ing the bro­wn­field and the spe­ci­fic com­pa­ny needs, avoi­ding rede­si­gning equi­p­ment or pur­cha­sing expen­si­ve appa­ra­tus. It is about eva­lua­ting value added, because pro­duc­tion effi­cien­cy is the dri­ver to tac­kle the com­pe­ti­tion.