To support technological innovation of Italian manufacturers: this is the goal that in 2019 led to the creation of Made, a digital factory at the service of businesses. A counterpart that provides knowledge, methods and tools, from design to engineering, organization to production and delivery, all the way to management of the end of the life cycle of products. A reality that now utilizes the Cloud platform of IBM to offer clients scalable processing capacity and services of storage, security and protection of data, to accelerate the digital transition for SMB.
According to data provided by Istat, small and medium businesses account for 54% of Italian industrial production, employing about 76% of the labor force, and are among the companies hardest hit by the economic crisis triggered by the pandemic. The New national transition plan 4.0 offers the opportunity for companies to initiate a path of digitalization, to make them more resilient, competitive and efficient, so they can play a fundamental role in Italy’s economic rebound.
“With the collaboration of the Ministry of Economic Development and the shared vision of 43 private companies, 4 universities and 1 public agency, Made has recently opened its own Digital and Sustainable Factory,” says Marco Taisch, President of Made Competence Center Industria 4.0. “It is a physical space of 2500 square meters, offering a preview of the activities that will be carried out inside it, through certain cases of use that involve application of technologies 4.0 like collaborative robotics, big data, remote maintenance, industrial cyber-security, artificial intelligence, IoT and 5G. The use of IBM Cloud permits us to offer solutions developed on a safe, effective and efficient platform.”
In 2021 Made has announced, and made available on the IBM Cloud platform, the first 19 projects of innovation, industrial research and experimental development: they range from collaborative robotics to intelligent systems of worker assistance to prevent the risk of work-related injuries, from analysis of processes to eliminate production defects to additive manufacturing with the Internet of Things in the medical field, from remote wear maintenance thanks to Quality 4.0 to artificial intelligence and deep learning for the production of algorithms capable of identifying intervention points inside an industrial process of person-machine collaboration.
Recent initiatives include a new call for companies for the realization of Industry 4.0 projects, with a total sum of 1.2 million euros, supported by the Ministry of Economic Development. Companies may apply until 20 April 2021: the call leads to financing that covers 50% of expected investment, with a maximum contribution for each individual project of 100,000 euros.
