Production line in St. Petersburg, testing team in Bologna, unable to move. Trouble that in the past would have been insurmountable, blocking both the start of the new Sputnik vaccine lines and the final collection of the order by the company.
A manageable theme now, with the digital investments of the Marchesini packaging machinery group allowing the Russian technicians to be controlled remotely. And more generally (250 remote tests carried out by the group last year) to overcome the pandemic without trauma.
Covid emergency that has highlighted even more the wide benefits of the 4.0 world, not surprisingly that has emerged almost unscathed from the worst crisis in the country since the war. For example, the result achieved in the hardest moment of the emergency to produce crucial components in the pulmonary ventilation systems is striking. Valves and adapters made in the middle of the lockdown remotely, simply by exchanging a file and putting a widespread network of 3D printers to work.
One episode, among many. And in fact, from the Industry 4.0 Transition Observatory of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano, it emerges that 2020 for hi-tech applications has been another year of growth, with the Italian Industry 4.0 market reaching a value of 4 , 1 billion euros, an increase of 8%. Obviously lower than the forecasts made in 2019 (+ 20%), but opposite to the decline estimates made during the first lockdown. «Confirming the fact – comments Marco Taisch, Scientific Director of the Industry 4.0 Transition Observatory -, that this is not a passing trend but a project that is constantly renewing the Italian industrial sector. The simplest initiatives are now known and consolidated, with at least one project activated in 75% of manufacturing companies ».
Industry 4.0 applications used by manufacturing companies are now 1400, 28% more than in 2019, with the highest frequencies for Industrial IoT solutions, equal to a quarter of the total (380, + 31%), often combined with Analytics and Artificial Intelligence algorithms.