The Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic announced the winners of the Industry 4.0 Award for the fifth time, this year for the first time in cooperation with SAPIE. The award is given to companies and projects that significantly contribute to digital transformation and innovation in industry. The main winner of this year’s award was FORVIA HELLA for its comprehensive approach to industrialization and the implementation of modern technologies across the entire production process. The winner in the Integration category is PARTORY GROUP for the Czech Republic and Spinbotics for Slovakia. The prize for in-house implementation went to Maxion Wheels Czech.
“The Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic has long been following key trends in the digital transformation of Czech companies and Industry 4.0. The Industry 4.0 Award competition provides us with a valuable insight into developments in this area. For the first time, we have teamed up with our Slovak colleagues from the Slovak Alliance for Innovative Economy (SAPIE), resulting in a record number of submitted projects and a broad spectrum of industries. This year, the level of implementation projects in our own companies was also significantly better, which confirms that companies are increasingly aware of the need to take digital transformation into their own hands and implement it effectively using advanced technologies,” said Jiří Holoubek, member of the Board of Directors of the Confederation of Industry and Transport and chairman of the jury.
The main winner is a manufacturer of lights for cars
The main winner was FORVIA HELLA with its concept of universal fully automated production of lighting technology for the automotive industry using VR technology. Pavel Tuček, the company’s head of innovation, sees the award as the success of extensive teamwork. “It is linked to many years of effort and a modern corporate culture that we implement in all phases of product and process development through industrialization. The award is another motivating factor for building our global competitiveness in a dynamic and constantly accelerating innovation cycle,” says Tucek.
For companies that have successfully implemented solutions based on modern technologies and elements of Industry 4.0 in their own operations, the category Implementation in-house is designed. This year’s winner is Maxion Wheels Czech s.r.o. It impressed the jury with its transition from sequential production to an in-line process using robotic intermediate storage and automated JIT planning with the creation of 100% product and process tracking. The top three solutions in this category also include projects by Škoda Auto and Vítkovice Cylinders.
Integrator is a category for solution authors, service providers or system integrators who have developed and implemented a product or service based on innovative technologies and Industry 4.0 elements for end customers. An important factor here is the successful deployment of these technologies. The winner of the category in the Czech Republic was PARTORY GROUP s.r.o. for its digital factory with unlimited machinery, which uses its innovative machine learning-driven platform with pricing using artificial intelligence algorithms. The jury then selected Vítkovice IT Solutions and Kinalisoft among the top three.
The best integrator in Slovakia was Spinbotics s.r.o., which produced and integrated the first Slovak robot Spinbot, with the aim of creating new automation opportunities for small and medium-sized companies. Other finalists were Sensoneo and iTranSys.
Wide range of projects and record participation
“The Industry 4.0 Awards are a great opportunity to show how Czech and Slovak companies are using modern technologies to achieve greater efficiency and competitiveness. The awarded projects are not only proof of their innovative potential, but also an inspiration for other companies to follow the path of digital transformation, which is essential for the competitiveness of Czech companies,” concludes Jiří Holoubek.
Companies are increasingly using digitalization and automation across all areas
A recent survey conducted by the Association among companies revealed several interesting trends. Compared to last year, companies are more likely to realise that digitisation enables them to better respond to customer demands. The number of companies without products or services that meet Industry 4.0 attributes is also falling – from 46.5% in 2022 to 40.4% this year. Manufacturing and logistics are the most commonly automated, but digitisation is also penetrating administrative functions such as HR and accounting. In 2019, 42% of companies planned to automate administration, while this year 72% have already done so. The number of companies planning to increase their budget for digitalization has also increased.
Source.
Press release: ‘SP CR awarded the best projects at the 1st Czechoslovak Industry 4.0 Award’ [online]. 4 October 2023. Available from: https://www.spcr.cz/pro-media/tiskove-zpravy/16969-sp-cr-ocenil-nejlepsi-projekty-v-ramci-1-rocniku-ceskoslovenske-ceny-za-prumysl-4-0.
