Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, robotics, 3D printing... These are some of the buzzwords that have invaded daily life to describe how traditional factories are transforming and changing their way of producing. They are doing so by introducing a lot of technology that is allowing them to digitize processes such as design, production, and distribution, with the aim of knowing what is happening at all times on the assembly lines and making better decisions.
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It is often difficult to understand what is behind all these terms, most of them pronounced in English, but Ramon Pastor, vice president and global general manager of HP's 3D printing business, translates them with ease. "The fourth revolution or Industry 4.0 consists of returning to the figure of the artisan who was asked to make a wooden spoon in the pre-industrial world, that is, to manufacture locally, on demand, and customizing the product, but doing it in a scalable and sustainable way," Pastor explained in a new session of the The New Barcelona – Moments Estel·lars cycle, organized by The New Barcelona Post with the collaboration of CASA SEAT, Must Media Group and Barcelona Global. The senior HP executive was accompanied by Pere Navarro, special delegate of the State in the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB), a great promoter and disseminator of Industry 4.0.
For this, Pastor continued, the introduction of new technologies plays an indispensable role. Among other things, because it allows for the improvement of mass production that arrived at the beginning of the 20th century and ended up causing the delocalization of factories to countries where it was cheaper, without forgetting the pollution generated later with transport to reach the customer and the overproduction that became widespread to adapt to an insatiable market. "For Catalonia, which is a country of SMEs, the fourth industrial revolution is very important because, for the first time, economies of scale do not exist. A small factory will have, more or less, the same costs as a large one because fixed costs will drop radically, this is a brutal opportunity for SMEs," emphasized the general manager of the multinational's campus in Sant Cugat del Vallès.
That is also where the CZFB comes in as a public entity that dedicates the resources it earns by renting out the industrial land it owns in the Zona Franca to fostering new business models. "We talk about economic promotion but also about the new industry. Before, industrial revolutions came every 100 years; now we are in a permanent revolution. There is an avalanche of technology in a very short time. We, from the public sector, try to provide the maximum facilities for all this to emerge and create opportunities. What interests us is that companies move forward," explained the CZFB delegate.
An example of how to leverage industry is the 3D printing incubator that the consortium created in 2019. Since then, it has served to make viable and accelerate the plans of more than 100 companies. And everything has been manufactured: from prosthetics to vehicles and motorcycles, even musical instruments. This is the case of Odisei Music, a Barcelona startup that wanted to find a way to manufacture saxophones to facilitate their transport when traveling. "The limit is imagination," Navarro warned.
"3D printing translates bits into atoms, that is, the virtual world into the physical world. And all this without intermediaries," Pastor specified. In fact, HP is not far from the CZFB incubator, being one of the companies that provides equipment. In addition, the multinational is also present in DFactory Barcelona, a complex promoted by the consortium that is dedicated to Industry 4.0. The company based in Palo Alto (California) is one of those that occupies the most square meters, with the installation of a 3D printing factory, a business unit whose global development headquarters are located in Sant Cugat.
"Barcelona has many elements to be a key player in this transformation", Pastor remarked. First, there are universities like the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), generators of well-prepared local talent that is more affordable when compared to engineers from Germany or the United States. "We are very competitive," the executive remarked, adding that the city is capable of attracting profiles from other countries. Then there is the Catalan industrial fabric, characterized by SMEs that can now benefit from the new industry, but also accompanied by headquarters and reference hubs of multinationals such as HP and ABB. "We are seen as a territory that is taking the initiative and can be a leader," he said in a session moderated by journalist and UPF-BSM professor Toni Aira.
"Think big"
"We have to believe it more," Navarro defended. "Barcelona and Catalonia have all the ingredients to be excellent, what sometimes holds us back is that we don't believe it enough," he added. It is also important, he stressed, not to miss the train and join the wave of change quickly: "Either we adapt or we will disappear."
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In that sense, Pastor called on administrations to be clear about what to invest in industry to avoid losing incipient leadership. "We have had and still have an erratic industrial policy. We don't know how to bet on certain vectors and money is put into everything. When you don't choose, you are normal in everything but excellent in nothing. It's a matter of attitude. We have to believe it and think big: from here we can lead," he warned. "We must be clear that we now have a window of opportunity to be leaders. We must act now, before these new technologies become mainstream," he stressed, after reiterating the need to "focus and bet on industrial innovation."
Both have also put on the table the need to much better align training cycles with the real needs of companies. "There is no training cycle for 3D machine operators," Pastor exemplified, who did welcome the recent launch of a master's degree at the UPC in engineering for additive manufacturing.