Industry 4.0 is no longer in its pioneer days. It has entered a mature phase, so the time for its implementation is now leaking much faster. It is therefore the last minute for the companies to reconsider the maturity stage of the company regarding the requirements of Industry 4.0.
This is one of the main messages of the Print 4.0 conference, which was held on October 26, at the Hotel Antunovic, Zagreb, Croatia. The conference was organized by Print Magazin, leading trade journal for graphic industry in Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, BiH and North Macedonia.
The conference brought together more than 80 participants from different parts of the graphics industry. There were print service providers of various profiles, distributors, technology producers and representatives of educational institutions.
70% of digital transformation projects fail
The conference was opened by an overview of the situation on the Croatian graphic industry market by Marko Gjeldum from the Croatian Chamber of Commerce. The figures he presented for 2020 were not a big surprise. The total decline recorded by the industry is less than 5%. There is a constant decline within the part related to the printing of newspapers and magazines. On the other side, the production of packaging and labels grows constantly.
Damir Ivan Konjevod from the Croatian Industry 4.0 Development Center provided participants with useful information related to the questions that each company should ask itself when it comes to assessing its maturity versus i4.0. He pointed out that, unfortunately, due to the inappropriate organizational structure 70% of digital transformation projects fail.
That it is possible to take the right steps was shown by Marko Moric from the University North. He shared his experience of implementing an ERP system in one Croatian printing house.
In his lecture, which attracted the greatest attention of the participants, Boris Blazinic, Ph.D. psychology tried to answer whether workers in i4.0 are a cost or a capital and how to find and recognize a good worker.
From software to technology
Agfa, Efi, Cron, Sistrade and Xerox also took part in the conference. They presented their solutions that can help psp’s adapt to the requirements of i4.0. Efficiency, quality, safety, speed, adaptability and diversity are what they offer.
Mike Horsten from Agfa spoke about the importance of workflow and introduced Agfa InterioJet, a machine for printing on various floor materials. Geert Lenvain, introduced Efi Fiery, a digital frontend solution for digital printing from a sheet of paper. Admir Joldic introduced the participants to the benefits of using Xerox Beyond CMYK technology. Mirko Milosavljevic from Prepress Print presented Cron CtP solutions for prepress, printing and finishing..
Branko Mihorko from the company Sistrade emphasised the fact that digital transformation is not an easy process. On that way each company will go through the “valley of death”. Their solution helps you get back on the road to the top more easily and stay there.
