Industry rolls out the red carpet for digitization

Indumation.be clocked in at 9,076 professional visitors, proving itself as the most important industrial fair in the country. That the number of visitors increased by 16% compared to the previous edition in 2017 proves two things. With automation and digitization as the main themes, the fair clearly knows how to strike the right tone. And with the nocturne with 3,000 partying exhibitors and visitors, Indumation.be can rightly and justifiably call itself the "Tomorrowland for the industry. The next edition will take place from February 3 to 5, 2021.

The red carpet in the exhibition aisles of Kortrijk Xpo was flat after Indumation.be. For three days it was a coming and going of professional visitors (9,076) and students (1,338), not to mention 220 enthusiastic exhibitors who had prepared their fair participation down to the last detail. This meant that not only were the booths buzzing with activity, but they were also visually particularly attractive and bursting with impressive demos and ditto novelties. In other words, all the ingredients were present to make it a great fair and so it happened. Not least because the economic and social climate also gave all the wind in its sails. Companies realize that the time has come to innovate, automate and digitize.

And where better to look for the right technological match than in the four halls of Indumation.be?

New record

Indumation.be thus smashed its own record. Organizers Invent Media, Agoria and Indumotion look back on this edition with satisfaction, but at the same time keep their feet on the ground. They want to evaluate as quickly as possible and adjust where necessary. That should sound familiar to manufacturing companies. One of the elements that gave an extra boost to visitor numbers are undoubtedly the many events that were organized. The sixteen Expert Classes, for example, were able to inform and inspire 678 participants around everything that will move in the industry of tomorrow. But people were also already looking ahead. The interactive demos of competence centers and colleges in Connectivator (Connect, Integrate, Innvate) were greatly appreciated, but the presentation of the Factory of the Future Awards also attracted a great deal of attention.

Ten new factories of the future

What better backdrop to introduce the new Factories of the Future to the public than the high mass for the technology industry in Belgium. Agoria and Sirris awarded another ten companies this year for their efforts to take their manufacturing to the next level: BMY Aerospace (Oostkamp), Bosch (Tienen), Colruyt Group Fine Food (Halle), Duracell (Aarschot), Janssen (Geel), Lavetan (Turnhout), Mirion Technologies (Olen), Niko Group (Sint-Niklaas), Materialise (Leuven and RF-technologies (Oosterzele). "With the Made Different action program, we have been preparing the manufacturing industry for Industrie 4.0 since 2012," Herman Derache, managing director of Sirris and head of innovation at Agoria, hinted. "To remain successful, despite or thanks to lightning-fast technological, economic and societal evolutions, our companies must reinvent themselves time and again and deal thoughtfully with people, energy and materials." Factories of the Future deliver customer-specific products with high added value and have the agility to respond smoothly to rapidly changing market demand. With an open mind for new business models, Factories of the Future are fully committed to digitized production processes. They make maximum use of modern production technologies.

Roll out to label European give connotations

Belgium's thirty Factories of the Future have since invested more than 850 million euros in infrastructure renewal, digitization and automation over the past five years. Moreover, their employment rose by 15%. It makes them pearls in the crown of our industry, recognizable by the label. In order to increase the resonance of Factories of the Future beyond our borders and spread it widely, Agoria and Sirris are also spreading their wings. They are promoting their vision of the Factories of the Future and the Made Different methodology in Europe, and this has not gone unnoticed. In Germany, the focus on people in Industry 4.0 is growing stronger, the Netherlands has been adopting the concept of Factories of the Future since last year and fifteen other European countries, under the auspices of the European Commission are also preparing to integrate an action program such as Made Different into their approach. The aim is to present European Factory of the Future awards in 2021. The Champions League for top manufacturing companies could thus start. Perhaps something for the next Indumation.be?