GMV puts its shoulder behind the Aragon government’s determined initiative to drive the region’s digital transformation, inputting the company’s expertise in the portal Aragon Industry 4.0.

In the words of Ángel Gavín, GMV’s Aragon delegate, “Aragon’s productive fabric boasts innovating companies that have viewed the challenge of transforming their processes and procedures towards the digital world as an opportunity”. Along these lines the website “Aragón Industria 4.0” (Aragon Industry 4.0), driven by the Economics, Industry and Employment Department (Departamento de Economía, Industria y Empleo) and led by the Aragon Technology Institute (Instituto Tecnológico de Aragón: ITAINNOVA) “represents an excellent platform for providers, government and companies to work jointly in favor of our region’s contribution towards Spain’s digital transformation”.

GMV’s robotics and simulation experience and expertise was hard-wired into the company’s very origins, since it was originally set up to lead aerospace projects. Throughout its 36-year history it has evolved and applied this expertise and other spinoff knowledge to areas such as Big Data, Cybersecurity, Advanced Analytics or Artificial Intelligence in new scenarios such as Industry 4.0.

GMV’s solvency in this matter has been recognized by the regional government, which has included it as an enabling company in the “Aragón Industria 4.0” portal. As Gavín explains “our aim is to share the company’s knowledge not only in the areas where we have been working away for years but also in recent Industry 4.0 projects we are now leading such as Productio, designed to win Aragon’s industry pole position in the new industrial model”.

PRODUCTIO, R&D for the national industry

The project PROductivity InDUstrial EnhanCement through enabling TechnlOgies (PRODUCTIO), coordinated by GMV and financed by Spain’s Industrial Technology Development Center (Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial: CDTI) comes under the umbrella Strategic Program of National Business Research Consortia (Programa Estratégico de Consorcios de Investigación Empresarial Nacional: CIEN) for major industrial research projects and experimental development. Its aim, in the words of Ángel Gavín, is to “research into diverse technologies, techniques, tools, methodologies and knowledge intended to increase the operational capability of industrial processes (Overall Equipment Efficiency: OEE) in the context of interconnected industry 4.0”. As the executive explains, “The project will facilitate the adoption of maintenance and productive solutions in interconnected industry and encourage digital confidence by means of new security approaches”. 

Set up as a multi-sector and multidisciplinary national R&D consortium formed by seven industrial companies (SMEs and major corporations) and GMV technology, its aim is to boost the productivity and competitiveness of Spanish industry. To do so, the consortium firms will share out tasks as follows: GONVARRI will look into new technologies to improve industrial maintenance processes, aiming to preempt and head off anomalies and faults, reducing downtime and boosting machine availability; FAGOR ARRASATE will study artificial intelligence in predictive maintenance of blanking line facilities; HIPERBARIC will research into predictive and assisted maintenance for maintaining machines distributed throughout the  world; FAE will study trailblazing manufacturing technology related to interconnected industry 4.0 that supports decision-making in the production and maintenance phase; ZENER will take on various technological challenges such as trustworthy prediction of imminent faults in its hoisting systems and improving the overall efficiency of the industrial process using Big Data analytical tools; INDUSTRIAS PUIGJANER (DENN, small firm) will generate knowledge to turn their machine tools into cyber-physical systems that improve aspects of reliability, performance, availability, productivity and quality; and TECNOMATRIX (small firm) will research into technology for ensuring the integrity of its sensor data and heading off fraudulent use.