GIPUZKOA PROVINCIAL COUNCIL, AFM CLUSTER AND IMH CAMPUS JOIN FORCES TO PROMOTE DIGITALISATION IN GIPUZKOA WORKSHOPS

• Agreement signed to undertake a pilot project at 30 businesses in the region

Gipuzkoa Provincial Council, AFM Cluster and IMH Campus have signed a collaboration agreement to undertake a pilot digitalisation project at advanced manufacturing workshops throughout Gipuzkoa. This initiative will have a budget of 222,206.25 euros and go by the name of Taller 30/100 in reference to the one thousand machining workshops in the advanced manufacturing field that need to digitally transform their organisational and production and service rendering processes. The agreement has been signed by the regional minister for Economic Promotion and Strategic Projects, Jabier Larrañaga, the director of AFM Cluster, Xabier Ortueta, and the director of IMH Campus, Ixaka Egurbide.

The three are joining forces with the objective of identifying and raising awareness in 30 companies, performing in-depth diagnostics in 20 of these, and undertaking at least 10 specific digitalisation projects, with a minimum duration of approximately 12 months, and with the commitment to document and disseminate the resulting case studies. This will result in 10 relevant documented case studies at companies with different profiles, that will serve as examples for future initiatives, enrich institutional support schemes and ultimately provide a methodology adapted to the reality of manufacturing in Gipuzkoa. Another of the benefits will be the identification and segmentation of the offer existing to support digitalisation.

As explained by the three players involved, “this project emerges out of the need to digitalise the manufacturing workshops in our region with a practical approach, easy to make profitable and with effective supports from those of us working in the ecosystem of industry support.” The aim is to “connect” two realities: “The reality of the parties offering technological and business solutions, for whom it can be hard to convey the clear competitive improvements that can be obtained through digitalisation; and, on the other hand, the reality of the machining workshops themselves, who are often unaware of the utility of digital technologies, or are simply not clear on what they are necessary for in their own specific case. There is a huge need to raise awareness and visualise good practices in order to encourage workshops to take a step forward.”

The project is not starting from scratch, however. It has forerunners in R&D&i projects like “LCAMP” and “TRANS4MERS” which were financed by the European Commission and developed the ADMA methodology which supports the transformation of manufacturing SMEs into ‘Factories of the future,’ encompassing environmental, digital and social challenges all over Europe from now to 2025. Also participating in these are Tknika, Instituto Miguel Altuna, Tecnalia, IMH Campus and AFM Cluster, as well as representative bodies from the majority of the countries in Europe. The aim is to adapt this methodology to the reality of the manufacturing industry in the region, obtaining a know-how that can be exported to the group of companies so that they may take on this challenge and continue to be competitive in their value chains.

Digital transformation is a factor of great importance in a constantly changing, technologically advanced world, since it can help companies to progress in efficiency and productivity, facilitating decision-making, simulating activity planning and flows, controlling costs, reducing environmental impact and improving aspects from maintenance to delivery terms, or quality control.

With this new initiative, the aim is to contribute to ensuring that Gipuzkoa “continues to advance towards a digital and connected workshop model, that will enable us to remain competitive in an increasingly complex and globalised industrial world.”

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