News

In collaboration with Science Park Borås, Automation Region is investigating new ways to automate small-scale textile production. The collaboration creates opportunities for automation companies to find new business opportunities within the textile industry, where there is great development potential for automated manufacturing processes.

On December 8^th, Automation Region arranged a digital workshop on automated product configuration - the process of customizing a product. Representatives from about 20 companies and organizations worked on a fictitious case based on a manufacturing company that wants to modernize its product configuration environment.

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.