To remain competitive, develop their resilience and address forthcoming environmental challenges, manufacturing companies constantly need to boost their efficiency and innovative capacities. Two key steps to achieve this is the uptake and widespread use of digital technologies and the adoption of an “Industry 4.0” approach as well as environmentally friendly processes.
These themes will be the focus when the manufacturing sector – in the broadest sense of the word – meets up for the 2021 edition of Smart Manufacturing Week, organised jointly by all the Luxinnovation clusters. This event, which will take place over three days, in person and remotely, will be an opportunity to gain an overview of tools, resources and best practices that can help companies – SMEs or large groups – to move forward.
“This new edition of Smart Manufacturing Week will deal with both digital and ecological issues facing companies in Luxembourg, and will once again benefit from the strong support of the Ministry of Economy,” explains Caroline Muller, manager of the Materials & Manufacturing cluster.
Mapping, round table and awards ceremony
The event will open on Wednesday morning with an online session covering the digital landscape available in Luxembourg, around the Digital Innovation Hub, HPC, GAIA-X and e-DIH. Minister of the Economy Franz Fayot will give the opening address.
In the afternoon, a “phygital” event will be held in Belval, in the Halle des poches à fonte. In addition to the presentation of the figures of the first mapping carried out for this sector in Luxembourg, Sebastien Wiertz, General Manager of Paul Wurth InCub, will provide an overview of the main challenges facing the Luxembourg industry today. His speech will be followed by a round table discussion including representatives of the Ministry of the Economy and of other companies such as Morgan Advanced Materials.
The round table will be followed by the presentation of the Grand Prix PropdPilot 2021, which rewards the companies in the Greater Region that have been the most innovative in terms of improving their productivity.
The programme of the other two days will be exclusively devoted to testimonies of companies that have initiated smart transformations of their processes and adopted sustainable manufacturing technologies.
18 November will bring together presentations from large companies (Ampacet, Avery Dennison, DuPont de Nemours, Rotarex) and SMEs (Fenster Mersch, Bexeb, Soudoplast, in collaboration with Zelitec Group and Traxxion) as well as the University of Luxembourg. All of them will explain how they have benefited from digital transformations.
The online session on Friday 19 November will focus on sustainable production processes. Ceratizit, Anisoprint and LIST will share their experience on the environmental impact they have made, as well as their skills in the field of ecology.