Automation, robotization, and digitalization tools and solutions for the industry will land at Fira de Barcelona's Gran Via venue with the Advanced Factories fair. Positioned as a leading event in this field in Southern Europe, the show reaches its eighth edition with more space and exhibitors than ever: nearly 30,000 square meters where 560 participants will showcase their innovations.
The fair, organized by Nebext, goes beyond the exhibition. Within the framework of the event, the Industry 4.0 Congress will be held, bringing together more than 360 experts to address the major axes of digital transformation in the industry. In 150 conferences spread across five simultaneous stages, experts and company representatives will share their perspectives and experiences in adopting 4.0 technologies. Integrating these new tools will be essential to maintain the competitiveness of the industry, as explained by the event manager of Advanced Factories, Victor Blanc, in an interview with The New Barcelona Post.
—What does Advanced Factories represent for the industrial sector?
—Our goal is to help the manufacturing sector digitalize and become more competent, applying solutions and technologies that optimize and improve the performance of their factories. Advanced Factories has become an unmissable event for the industrial sector.
—This is the second edition that the show is held at Fira de Barcelona, and the first year it does so alone, after having debuted in 2022 alongside the biennial Advanced Machine Tools. Is the move to Fira here to stay?
—We have made a great leap in quality since we moved to Fira. In addition to gaining space, Fira de Barcelona helps to dress up a technological and leading event in its sector. The road ahead with Fira is long.
—The show not only includes the exhibition area, but also conferences and forums. What role do these meetings play within the event?
—At the Industry 4.0 Congress, many industrial experiences and success stories will be showcased. Thus, attendees no longer just come to see the offer of solutions, but to see the demand itself explaining their experiences with these automation and digitalization solutions and how they have applied these technologies. In addition, we will have segmented meetings for profiles such as CEO and plant managers, the delivery of the Factories of the Future Awards 2024 and, although Advanced Factories is a professional event, a meeting with students to address the talent that the industry needs. We are going to continue filling the event with micro-events that benefit the visitor.
—And will both the event and these micro-events feature Artificial Intelligence as the protagonist?
---All sessions and the entire congress will be heavily infused with Artificial Intelligence, although we will also have a specific forum on AI. Its application and use in industry have been on the table for years, and now the benefits it generates are beginning to be seen. Showcasing experiences from leading companies that have incorporated AI years ago will help SMEs begin to see its usefulness and benefits, so that they can gradually integrate it.
—Will implementing this AI be the key to staying competitive?
---It will not only be AI, but also the integration of automation and robotics systems, with diverse technologies such as 3D printing. These are elements that the industry has to start integrating, and often it is the pending subject. Technologies for Industry 4.0 must be applied, but the ultimate goal is for them all to be integrated. That is when optimization and benefit are achieved.
—Thus, the fundamental thing is not only to adopt new technologies individually, but to integrate them with each other.
—The most important thing is the integration of these systems, with robotics, AI, cybersecurity, big data… These technologies must be unified and integrated, and whoever does not want to do so will take a step backward. The cost of not betting on these tools will be much greater than the cost of implementing them.
"Throughout these years, what we have done has been to bring technology closer to the Spanish manufacturing sector, to make it understand that it is here and that it has to implement it"—Also for small and medium-sized businesses?
—Indeed, and there are aids and facilities in this regard. It is no longer like it was in the early years of Advanced Factories, when it was perceived that these technologies were linked only to leading companies. Now we have SMEs that are doing it, and it works. The exhibition encourages them to take a step forward and dare to use these tools.
—This must be just one of many changes compared to the early years of the exhibition.
—Over the last eight years, technologies such as 3D printing, big data and blockchain have evolved a lot. But the big change lies in that, whereas before talking about any of these technologies required a prior explanation of at least half an hour, now professionals already know what they need and for what specific part of their business line. Throughout these years, what we have done has been to bring technology closer to the Spanish manufacturing sector, to make them understand that it is here and that they have to implement it.
—Therefore, has the event been key in the digitalization and automation of industry?
—Without Advanced Factories, this advance would have been more complicated. What we have achieved since the first edition has been to accelerate the automation of Industry 4.0, and thus gain competitiveness.
—The sector has experienced multiple changes in these last eight years. What do the next eight hold?
—Looking ahead, our goal is to help SMEs incorporate these technologies. Small and medium-sized companies come every year, but some are more reluctant to apply them or find it more difficult to invest and bet on them. For us, seeing not only large companies, but also SMEs explaining the benefits of these solutions within four years, will be the demonstration that we are going in the right direction.