News

In the textile and fashion industry, a large amount of products are overproduced, which leads to unnecessary emissions of chemicals and resource consumption in terms of, for example, water and electricity. The newly started project Mikrofabriker will make visible and remove waste in the value chain.

- It would be fantastic if we could achieve a profitable Swedish textile production with the help of new technical solutions, says Erik Valvring, project manager at Science Park Borås.

At Automation Region's webinar on June 23th, we met the member company PrimeKey, which showed how IT systems can be connected to the operational production environment. Proven technology in digital security is the basis for new applications, where it is possible, for example, to assign digital identities to products already in the manufacturing process.

The real benefit behind concepts such as AI and IoT is realized by transforming data into insight. Successful data analysis is based on structured collection, storage and use of information to generate business benefits, innovative power and business development.

Automation Region has spoken to three experts - how do they view developments in the field and what advice do they want to give organizations that want to get started creating value with the help of data analysis?

The spring of 2020 did not turn out as we expected. At the same time as authorities and politicians are working to reduce the spread of infection and dampen the effects of the stagnant economy, intensive crisis management and transition in industry is ongoing. How do companies think about the crisis and the future?

Automation Region's Business Development Group plans and conducts activities aimed at increased business and networking. The group's most recent meeting was conducted remotely, focusing on the effects of the corona pandemic and what the companies in the network can do to support each other. We have talked to three of the group's members - representatives from Karlskoga Automation, Atea and CGI.

There are several different measurement tools that companies and organizations can use to assess their own prerequisites for innovation. Helena Blackbright, researcher at Mälardalen University and project manager at Automation Region, has studied what determines the effect and benefit of these self-assessments.

At the beginning of April, Automation Region took part for the first time in the Hanover Exhibition where, together with the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre and 10 exhibiting companies, we hosted the Swedish automation pavilion. Sweden is recognized internationally as an industrial and innovation nation, and the automation pavilion constituted a rendezvous point for Swedish companies, organisations and authorities.

As a participating party in an EU-funded project, Automation Region contributes to innovation and automation in the agricultural sector. What began as a concrete technical challenge – the problem with soil compaction in agriculture – has been expanded and now also covers development of a general innovation model for green industries.

For the first time, Automation Region is participating in Hannover Messe, the world’s largest industrial fair. Together with the Swedish Congress and Exhibition Centre and ten exhibiting companies, we are building an automation pavilion – a shop-front for our Swedish expertise and tradition of collaboration and innovation.

Automation Region is participating in a number of different projects which aim to stimulate innovation and growth. This spring we are looking at some of these projects in more detail, and the first up is Swesa – an investment which includes a digital incubator for growth companies in the energy sector.

DigiCORE is a long-awaited lab environment in which companies, public-sector organisations and academia can collaborate and test ideas in order to bolster the digital transformation together. On 6 December, the lab was inaugurated at RISE SICS in Västerås with over 100 curious onlookers.