THE CHALLENGES OF THE FUTURE INDUSTRY TO DEBATE IN SAN SEBASTIAN

A congress at the service of the industry of the future: San Sebastián host from the 23^rd to the 25^th of October, 2019, at the Science and Technology Park of Gipuzkoa, the XXII edition of the Congress of Advanced Manufacturing and Machine tools.

The congress was conceived to be a collaboration between the associative and academic environments, but today it is also the reference congress for advanced manufacturing companies and their users. Through sessions that are held in parallel, the scientific-technical congress and the informative congress are developed, deepening those issues that make up the current state of industrial companies: electromobility and the challenges facing the automotive world, the digitalization process of productive organizations, the possibilities that additive manufacturing opens up, effective talent retention policies or the generation of technology-based companies in the industrial environment.

This year the program was completed with the Aerotrends congress, an interesting exhibition area and with B2B meetings between professionals of the sector, in order to promote cooperation and favor the creation of trade agreements.

Opening and closing

A large institutional representation participated in the opening and closing events of the congress as a reflection of their commitment to an initiative that focuses on industrial innovation. This year, the Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu presided over the opening ceremony, in which Francisco José Riberas, President of Gestamp also participated, opening the congress with an inaugural session dedicated to the future and the challenges of the automotive industry.

As in previous editions, during the closing ceremony of the congress, which took place on October 25^th, five prizes were awarded: one, to the best work presented by a company, another, to the best communication presented by the scientific-technical community, the third, to the best final project of a technical school, the fourth, to the best talk presented in Basque and the novelty of this year, was the prize for the best poster presented at the congress.

Digitization in Advanced Manufacturing

In this panel several experts addressed the issues that mark the current trends in digitalization in advanced manufacturing, such as artificial intelligence, the “Digital Twin”, Deep Learning, etc. Speakers included Andreas Gross, Executive Managing Partner of Berger Gruppe, Thomas Hahn, Software Expert at Siemens AG and Stefan Scheifele, of ISG Virtuous.

Additive Manufacturing

A great challenge for companies is to obtain the ability to combine new additive manufacturing technologies with other advanced manufacturing technologies. The guests of this session shared their experiences and explained the path they have followed in their organizations to implement these new processing techniques and what are the challenges and opportunities that 3D printing offers us. We had guests such as Phil Dickens, professor at the University of Nottingham, Paolo Gennaro, Director of GF Precicast Additive, Vladimir Novrotsky, Director of Technology (CTO) of Siemens Power Generation Service or David Sánchez, Director of Innovation of Gonvarri, among others.

Attraction and talent management

Organizations need to develop effective talent retention strategies, and for this, the congress had the participation of six experts who discussed these challenges in a round table. Among the participants were Camilla Hillier-Fry, partner of PeopleMatters, who presided the table, Carmen Pinto, General Director of Nicolás Correa, and Nerea Aranguren, Director of Ideko and Director of Innovation of Danobatgroup.

Electromobility

In the automotive sector, the electrification of vehicles will have very important consequences on the equipment and manufacturing strategies of each component of the electric and autonomous vehicle. In this field, together with Francisco José Riberas, we had José Manuel Cubert, Director of Engineering of GKN, Jorge Posada, Deputy Director of Vicomtech, and Marisa Miedes of Valeo, who explained what electromobility will imply and its impact on manufacturing.

Aerotrends

The aeronautical sector is a user sector of machine tools and the most advanced manufacturing technologies, and its manufacturing trends directly affect manufacturing companies. Therefore, on this occasion, and within the framework of our close collaboration with Hegan, we welcomed the celebration of a new edition of Aerotrends, Aerospace Business Meetings & New Trends Conferences. With Ana Villate, Director of Hegan, presiding over the table, experts from the sector presented and discussed the news and the future of the aeronautical sector.

Startups development and launch

Mathieu Carenzo, professor at IESE, presented the keys to collaboration between companies and startups, and we got to hear about the experiences of those who have started technology-based companies related to the industry. Specifically, the experiences of four member companies of the newly created UPTEK who took part in this session: Oretek, Savvy, Nuavis and Innovae.

The congress was once again supported by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, the Department of Economic Development and Infrastructure of the Basque Government and the Group SPRI.