BOBST previews its advances in augmented reality at the 2nd Industry Connect #data at Tornos
Sharing of experiences between manufacturers on the use of data in production environments
The latest Industry Connect event, organized by SME support platform Alp ICT, took place at Tornos (Moutier) and was a great success with manufacturers from the Arc Jurassien. This is the second in a series of Industry Connect sessions on production data, in partnership with the Economic Services of the cantons of Neuchâtel, Jura and Bern, as well as Micronarc, FSRM, HE-Arc, CNCI, CSEM, platinn, Creapole, be-advanced.
For the occasion, Michael Hauser, CEO of Tornos, came to present and discuss with regional manufacturers (Rolex, Sylvac, Bien-air Dental, Precidata, Schaublin...) his vision of Innovation and Industry 4.0. This machine-tool factory, based in Moutier for over 100 years, has become a veritable emblem of Swiss-Made, whose reputation extends far beyond the cantonal and national borders. Mr. Hauser unveiled the company's ambitions for 2020 : to strengthen its international presence, grow through innovation, and develop new services such as TISIS, the new real-time machine fleet monitoring solution, or the Tornos Academy, a training program for the company's customers, enabling them to rapidly train new operators and thus increase productivity.Innovation, the central theme of this event, therefore appears to be at the heart of Tornos SA's concerns.
This new AR solution is a real revolution in the packaging industry
The session then continued with the much-anticipated talk by Valéry Naula, Head of IoT Services at BOBST. " 129 years ago, we were a startup from Lausanne that has now become a market leader". With these words, Mr. Naula began, setting the tone for his presentation dedicated to the new Helpline Plus AR service, an Augmented Reality maintenance solution. Made official last week, this new service is a veritable revolution in the packaging industry, as no other competing company worldwide has yet presented a similar solution aimed at end-customers. But beyond the disruptive dimension of this new service, its implementation is a real feat. Data confidentiality and security, adaptability to a rich catalog of over 1,000 different machines from other manufacturers, reliability and security of the end-to-end connection, solidity and longevity of the connected glasses to survive in hostile environments, etc. There were many challenges to overcome before arriving at a solution that could be industrialized and therefore marketed.
For this innovation also marks BOBST's ambitious attitude to an emerging market: that of data and its monetization. In the age of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, this is a real industrial challenge facing all the region's manufacturers. " With Helpline Plus AR, we're moving from corrective maintenance to preventive maintenance. Eventually, thanks to data analysis, we hope to be able to offer our customers a prescriptive maintenance service!" explained Valéry Naula.
"BOBST's example perfectly illustrates the transformation that is taking place in the market, where value creation is shifting towards high value-added services. Digital transformation impacts not only value creation, but also the company's business model, and therefore inevitably its organization, management and corporate culture," emphasized Yohann Perron, Strategy & Program Manager at Alp ICT.
Visit the Tornos workshops and its new i-moutier incubator
A corporate culture in the throes of change at both BOBST and Tornos. Anne Hirtzlin, General Secretary of the i-moutier incubator, rounded off the conference with a presentation of this new structure dedicated to fostering the emergence of innovative projects in the Arc Jurassien region, whose members and supporters include not only Tornos, but other prestigious companies such as Sylvac, Louis Bélet and Willemin-Macodel. Offering a wide range of services for entrepreneurs (offices, coworking space, prototyping space, financing, accommodation and catering), the initiative is also profoundly innovative, bringing together renowned companies, academic partners (HE-Arc) and institutional partners (Canton of Berne, Canton of Jura, BE-advanced, Creapole, Swiss Innovation Park, Microcity, CEP, platinn, ARCM). Playing the collective regional intelligence card to the full, it aims to strengthen local industry while raising its profile, attracting and retaining the talent needed to develop tomorrow's solutions. And it's working: after just 1 year in existence, 3 projects are already being supported by i-moutier and 5 are under study!
Finally, a visit to the Tornos workshops gave participants the opportunity to discover the company's know-how. The cocktail party rounded off this rich program, giving participants the opportunity to discuss their respective visions and projects. Valéry Naula also made available a demonstrator, allowing participants to step into the shoes of a customer and don a pair of connected glasses. Some thirty industrialists from the Jura Arc were thus able to sample the joys of the famous Industrie 4.0.
The third and final episode in this series of events dedicated to production data will take place in April in the Canton of Jura, and will address new data-driven business models. For further information, please contact Alp ICT.
