We must learn from each other, share our knowledge and problems, so that we can catch up faster with the advanced industrial world, said Vidosava Vida Dzagic, assistant director of the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, opening the first workshop on the subject of Implementation of Industrial Robots in Automation of Manufacturing Processes, which was held today at the Metalac company in Gornji Milanovac..
For more than 50 engineers, directors and owners of mostly small and medium-sized companies from Belgrade, Kragujevac, Valjevo, Kraljevo, Gornji Milanovac, Cacak, Pozega and Uzice, this topic was not new – but the need for the exchange of knowledge and experiences was obvious.
According to the insight provided by the research performed by the Faculty of Economics and the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (PKS) on the subject of Industry 4.0, the greatest priority in the process of automation of production processes is finding an easier and cheaper way to acquire new knowledge and skills, with the main aim being to achieve continued improvement of quality and monitoring of performance in real time.
For this reason, the Chamber of Commerce of the capital city and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering from Belgrade have launched a series of workshops in Metalac that will be dedicated to automation of manufacturing processes. The first workshop dealt with the metal complex, while the next ones will cover other industrial areas – from food industry to the tire and plastic industry.
While the total supply of robots and their advantages and flaws in practical use – as discussed by Robert Klacek, a representative of the world’s largest manufacturer of robots, FANUC AUTOMATION – were quite well-known, the aspect of their implementation and integration with the manufacturing process attracted a lot of interest. This aspect was presented by their partners, representatives of two companies from Serbia – Tehno-Soft and Profi-Cut.
In general, it seems that our engineers and businessmen are most of all interested in planning of automation and identification of solutions for small series with great flexibility, which is one of the most common challenges they have realistically been faced with during the recent years. Between the evident outflow of personnel and the fact that in many processes labor is still cheaper than investing in robots, on the one hand, and the requirement for high quality, increased productivity and reduced costs, on the other hand, it is clear that the professionals and the owners of capital have a lot to talk about.