Tools for industrial management: the company is evolving
GP Progetti is continuously evolving in the field of tools for industrial management. The proposed software packages are designed to improve the productive efficiency of companies and are able to meet the needs of different sectors. GP Progetti’s solutions are able to follow the analysis phases, customer and supplier order inventory coverage, supply and more. The centralized management of production flows is the basis of a process that offers quality products or services: this is why it should involve all professionals whose priority is the streamlining of production phases, the limitation of various wastes and the general improvement of all planning stages. Thanks to the workflow management systems it is useful for keeping track of workload, all documents and all data; a correct methodology for implementing the tools for industrial management can be summarized in five main steps:
- Identify the process to be analyzed
- Define input and output exchanged between the protagonists of the process
- Define the activities and procedures that control the progress
- Define expectations
- Define the responsibilities of the process
The production scheduler: planning methods
Thanks to the production scheduler it is possible to manage all company resources whether they are workbenches, operators or external resources. GP Progetti has created ten scheduling software packages and three data collection modules: they are completely customizable data collection and production monitoring programs that become a real monitor for real time planning supervision.
Would you like to improve your business using tools for industrial management? Contact us for a fact-finding meeting.
- Published in NEWS
Industry 4.0 Plan 2018: the revolution is real
A series of technological changes have taken place within the business sphere for several years which materialized in projects supported by Industry 4.0 Plan 2018.
The digitalization of business processes has increasingly developed in every sector with the successful involving of Italy, so much that it has become necessary to draw up a series of benefits for companies, not just tax but also on the training necessary for the beneficial use of digital technologies.
The 4.0 business plan was approved by the government at the end of 2016 in order to provide companies with practical tools to operate properly with technological tools: in the meantime, the needs of the companies themselves and the aims of the Industry 4.0 national plan have undergone some changes; now the plan is analyzing how the issue will be addressed next year.
Industry 4.0 2018
So far, the reality of industry 4.0 is not a real trend on a large scale: only large companies have taken the “challenge” by applying the new systems to individual projects of internal renewal.
However there were some very successful results thanks to the application of the 4.0 policies.
The data emerge from a survey developed by the Ministry of Economic Development on the dissemination of new methodologies according to which:
- about half of the companies over 250 employees have already adopted at least a 4.0 technology
- more than a third of the companies between 50 and 250 employees have chosen to apply 4.0 technologies for their production processes
It turns out, however, that only 24.4% of the companies under 50 employees (therefore the small and medium enterprises) have already experimented with this type of solutions.
The gap remains if the trend of the “phenomenon” is projected in the future year. In the coming months it is expected that only 10% of medium-sized Italian companies will implement at least a 4.0 technology (compared to the three-year period), but the percentage rises to 35.1% among those over 250 employees and significantly decreases to 7.9% among those with ten employees.
Some of the innovations of Industry 4.0 2018 concern the drop shipping activity – a sales model that is gaining ground lately. The new solutions are presented at the same time for the GDO, construction companies and shops in general, from clothing to furniture.
Innovation often starts “silently” as a leader within the big groups in order to spread at a second moment with great enthusiasm: nothing worrying in the extrapolated data.
If you are interested in knowing all the news concerning incentives for Industry 4.0 of 2018, contact us to find out if you are eligible for tax incentives.
- Published in NEWS, Technology
The industrial 4.0 digitization: the new industrial revolution
Industry 4.0 is increasingly expanding its borders thanks to the greater digitization and interconnection that is characterizing the market in recent years.
Thus the industrial 4.0 digitization has spread successfully in most of the world, developing recently also in Italy.
In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, the digitization of business processes, especially those dedicated to production has increasingly developed in every sector, involving both small and large companies.
Among the processes, production has undergone the highest effects of industrial 4.0 digitization, as it moves from more rigid logic to a more flexible system, which also allows greater customization of the offer by adapting the product to customer requests, sustaining low costs.
This new industrial revolution pushes towards the era of on-demand production, facilitating the launch of machines that are always connected and able to produce pieces quickly and efficiently.
The industrial 4.0 digitization favors the interconnection of all production components.
In addition to investments, another significant element for the transition to this new way of doing business is human capital, which must be properly trained and must be able to adapt to the many changes brought by digitization.
The Industrial 4.0 Plan
At the end of 2016 the Business 4.0 Plan is approved by the government and this represents an opportunity for all companies that want to seize the possibilities linked to the fourth industrial revolution.
The plan includes concrete measures based on three main guidelines: to operate in the logic of technological neutrality, to intervene with horizontal actions (therefore not sectorial) and to act on enabling factors.
Among the objectives of this plan: to mobilize already in 2017 additional private investments for 10 billion and to allocate 11.3 billion of private spending in research between 2017 and 2020. Not less, more than 2.6 billion Euro of private early stage investments.
The advantages of industrial 4.0 digitization
The advantages that can be obtained from industry 4.0 are numerous and essentially linked to a recovery of staff productivity.
Moreover, since these systems are easy to use, the company does not find it difficult to implement them and can also define which technology to focus on.
The main purpose of the industrial 4.0 plan is to encourage companies to adapt and fully adhere to the fourth industrial revolution, supporting the digitization of business processes and the technological modernization of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises throughout the country.
Contact GP Progetti if you are interested in adopting or improving your industrial 4.0 digitization system.
- Published in NEWS
Export in the EU countries is a gold mine for SMEs
Both the demand and production are growing. To keep up with the requests, however, you need software to optimize the production more and more customizable able to meet the real needs of the customer. Considering that in the first half of 2018 and in the next few months at least in the European Union foreign markets are increasingly important for the SMEs of Brescia and allow often significant margins, it is appropriate to seriously reflect on this possibility of growth and development, still supported by Industry 4.0 Plan.
The importance of the foreign market was highlighted by the six-monthly analysis of data on the international development of partner enterprises carried out by the Apindustria study center through a survey involving a sample of 100 partner enterprises, mainly from the engineering sector. In the first half of 2018, turnover in the EU countries grew by 46% of companies, and in 15% of cases over 10%. This is a good sign also for those who have exported to other non-EU European countries and, in a distinct way, to Africa and the Middle East. If this is the picture of the recent past, expectations on international trade for the next months are mostly stable. The most optimistic notes concern the EU market: half of the sample believes that intra-EU trade can grow further. The prospects for European non-EU markets are also positive, except for the Russian one, where almost a fifth of respondents expect a significant reduction in the near future. The North American market is stable, the main growth prospects are identified in North Africa (67% of respondents) and in the Middle East (50%), areas where in the past years (due to geopolitical tensions) there were significant standstills.
Data on the international development of Apindustria companies reveal the growth of exports
As regards the methods and approaches to the foreign markets, in line with the data recorded in the previous semesters, the prevailing formula is the direct export, used by 64% of respondents. The B2B digital platforms are currently used by approximately one in ten companies. As for the responsibility to increase market shares in the near future, the European Union appears as a natural development area for an already consolidated presence. The greatest efforts will be directed towards Asia: «80% of those intending to turn to this market – read in the foreign focus of the Apindustria study office – will invest to implement or develop new business relationships. It is interesting to highlight that Asia, pointed out by respondents, is not strictly China, with respect to which they seem to pay little attention». More than in the Country of the Dragon, the companies seem to look to other Countries in the Southeast Asia area, crossed by solid growth processes and with the possibility of building positive business relationships. Compared to the difficulties, the limited company size (with related problems of lack of dedicated personnel, costs and sometimes linguistic barriers) represents for the partner enterprises the main obstacle to the development of further commercial relations with foreign countries. Thus, the foreign office activated at this point by Apindustria for the past three years, aimed precisely at supporting companies in the necessary internationalization process, should also be taken into consideration. In addition to the endogenous factors, however, the exogenous aspects also matter, the first one being represented by the protectionist barriers.
Half of the companies contacted believe that intra-EU businesses can grow further. Relations with Africa are recovering
«The analysis of our study center confirms the growing importance of foreign markets for Brescian companies – underlines the vice president of Apindustria Brescia with the manager in charge of internationalization Alessandro Orizio -, interested not only in consolidating their presence in Europe but wishing to deepen the significant opportunities that exist in Asia. However, there is also a concern about the protectionist signs, which certainly do not help an open and export-oriented productive system like ours. Our wish is that we can find positive solutions to current disagreements, to the benefit of businesses and consumers».
Set up a fact-finding meeting to evaluate how to ride the wave thanks to software to optimize the manufacturing production designed by the GP Progetti team.
Source: Bresciaoggi 29/08/2018
- Published in NEWS