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A large part of Automation Region's activities, projects and initiatives are based on the newly established concept of IndTech. The term describes the development that is taking place in the industry right now, where existing automation and IT systems are being strengthened with new digital solutions. Swedish companies are judged to have a good starting point in this rapid structural transformation, but there are also challenges.

Since the end of World War II, the United States has developed a successful ecosystem of partnership between business and government. Extensive federal R&D efforts have led to breakthroughs such as the Internet and GPS technology, which in turn form the basis of leading US tech companies and platforms. Most of these companies conduct most of their development from Silicon Valley, where they, together with universities such as Stanford and UC Berkeley, have played an important role in the region's development.

This year’s Automation Student competition has been decided. Ajna Hodzic and Dzenita Skulj have explored, in their prizewinning degree project, how data analysis and machine learning can reduce costs, predict maintenance and improve efficiency in rail transport. The degree project, Data Driven Anomaly Control Detection for Railway Propulsion Control Systems, has been carried out at Bombardier Transportation in Västerås, where the authors have investigated different methods for monitoring and analysing data collected during the propulsion of trains. Two machine learning techniques – monitored and unmonitored learning – are used to detect deviations and predict potential faults.

At the beginning of October, the pilot round of Automation Region's training Service Business was completed. The training is aimed at product companies that want to develop their service operations and increase the degree of digitization. We have talked to participants from Xylem and Kanthal - two companies that invest heavily in the development of new services.

During the pandemic, we have seen great flexibility in production. Industrial companies have switched focus to be able to produce protective equipment when the usual products are not in demand or deliveries fail. In the same way that during the holidays we are more flexible in taking on tasks and responsibilities that we otherwise shy away from or do not feel qualified for, we can during a crisis raise our gaze and adjust - not just because we have to, but because we want to.

This flexibility in what we do, how we do it, and who does what is central to innovation and development. But if we look at something that has been on the industry's agenda in recent years - technology development and digitalization - what does it look like?

A key challenge for small and medium-sized enterprises is to increase the power of innovation and renew the business model with the help of new technology. There are often one or more individuals within their own organization who can drive development and innovation, but it is required that they receive the right support and room for maneuver. At IVA, we are currently looking into how we can support companies' intrapreneurship – namely the internal entrepreneurship.

How can AI be useful in production and manufacturing? What is important to think about and how do you get started? On September 22, Automation Region conducted a webinar focusing on industrial AI applications.

- More and more organizations are investing in AI, but in the traditional manufacturing industry development is not so fast, says Peiman Momeni, business developer at Peltarion. Many who we come in contact with state that they would like to wait for the technology to mature and for the tools to be better suited for their specific business.

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.

Swedish industry is globally competitive and known for high competence, innovation capacity and a collaborative climate. For a small, export-dependent country, it is crucial to take a seat and lead technological development. But when we are hit by a crisis, the natural reaction is to slow down - to focus on core business and pause development and cooperation.

The corona pandemic has in many ways shown how dependent we are on global value chains and that the systems we have built are unfortunately not very robust. During the spring, I worked for Volvo in the USA. In my workplace, and in the automotive industry in general, the consequences were clear - when the influx of materials stopped, so did production. In this way, the pandemic has benefited, it has exposed weaknesses that allow us to better prepare for the future.

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.