Seven in 10 manufacturing companies in Singapore plan to increase their deployment of Industry 4.0 solutions by 2020 to enhance organisational efficiency and productivity, as well as drive competitive advantage. The top three solutions they intend to deploy are IT/OT convergence (22 percent), mobility and devices (22 percent), and robotics and artificial intelligence (20 percent). These are part of Accenture’s Manning the Mission for Advanced Manufacturing report, which surveyed 29 key industry stakeholders in Singapore, including 20 manufacturing companies that represent 64 percent of the republic’s manufacturing output in energy, chemicals and utilities industries. Since talents with knowledge and skills […]

The report of the NGI workshop held in Pisa on 11th July 2017 is now available. Download it here (English version) Presentations of the event (in Italian) can be downloaded here If you could not attend the event but you wish to contribute, let us know your views via email at info@next-in.eu we will be happy to update the report with your contribution!  

The Internet of Things As the number of products on the market described as “smart” has grown, “the internet of things” has become something of a buzzword (or buzz phrase). The phrase “internet of things” suggests a network of connected or computerized devices that work together to make life more convenient and simple for the user. For example, a cell phone app that controls the lights and locks in one’s house could be considered to be part of the internet of things because it involves two separate “smart” devices communicating to make life easier. A remote video surveillance system that analyzes customer […]

Over the next five years, the demand for IT workers will get a big boost from an unlikely source: manufacturers looking for networking pros who can help them run the industrial internet of things (IIoT). Manufacturers in the US, Germany, Japan and China are on the cutting edge of something called Industry 4.0, which is digital transformation applied to manufacturing – bringing with it all the change, opportunities and challenges that represents. And it includes IoT devices that contribute to the manufacturing process. According to the PwC’s 2016 Global Industry 4.0 Survey, manufacturers across a broad spectrum of industries plan […]

The European Commission in collaboration with NExtIN (www.next-in.eu) and Polo Tecnologico di Navacchio (www.polotecnologico.it) organize a workshop in support of the EC Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative. Researchers, start-ups, SMEs, social innovators and representatives of the civil society are invited to discuss with the European Commission to shape the Internet of the future. The purpose of the workshop is to explore opportunities for research, industry, SMEs/start-ups and civil society for collaboration within the scope of the NGI initiative. Open and multidisciplinary discussions, as the key elements of the workshop agenda, will help the attendees to actively participate in debates prioritizing and shaping […]

WATIFY MATCHMAKING EVENT ON PHOTONICS –  FIND YOUR NEXT TECHNOLOGY, RESEARCH, COMMERCIAL OR FINANCIAL PARTNER! Watify is an awareness-raising campaign, funded by the European Commission, to stimulate the technological transformation of Europe’s industry, is organising a matchmaking event on Photonics in Florence in cooperation with the Region of Tuscany, ACTPHAST, Tuscany Life Sciences Cluster, Confindustria Toscana, Entreprise Europe Network and Istituto di Fisica Applicata “Nello Carrara”  Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Photonics is applied in a wide range of fields, including manufacturing, ICT, healthcare, and offers enormous business opportunities in the development of cutting-edge materials and devices. Bilateral meetings between different actors will […]

The Digital Assembly 2017 will take place on 15 and 16 June in Valletta, Malta. It is an event co-organised by the European Commission and the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The Digital Assembly 2017 #da17eu, is an opportunity for stakeholders to debate, take stock and look ahead at how Europe and how its partners around the world are preparing for this digital transformation. It will also be an opportunity to have a dialogue on the benefits of the Digital Union for citizens with a special focus on our younger generations. Register here 2017 will be a […]

Germany has been bandying about the slogan Industry 4.0 for about 10 years now, yet most people still don’t know what it is all about.  It is an excellent piece of marketing slang, both extremely complicated to understand and yet brilliantly simple. Even those who get it, however,  mostly fail to grasp the implication of this industrial revolution.  So what is Industry 4.0? On first glance, everything seems to be part of it, from robots to artificial intelligence. Speakers at Industry 4.0 seminars often go on  about cyber-physical systems, enterprise-control system integration, MES, anything from level 1 to level 5 […]

The important role connected technologies play in safeguarding manufacturing resilience has been highlighted with the global predictive maintenance market set to grow exponentially over the next five years. As the UK continues to be affected by currency fluctuations and a shifting relationship with the European Union, manufacturers are striving for competitive advantage in order to better compete on a global scale – with many turning to predictive maintenance. Predictive maintenance is forecast to make waves the world over, rising to $4.9bn by 2021, according to the latest study by global research firm, MarketsandMarkets. With such an opportunity on offer, manufacturers […]

Here’s a paradox of America’s highly automated, increasingly labor-independent manufacturing: While sophisticated, for the most part, it isn’t all that high-tech. Picture metal-stamping machines in an auto-parts factory that can easily have a long useful life of up to 40 years. Now picture the assembly line just outside Austin, Texas, where Samsung Electronics Co. makes core chips for Apple Inc.’s iPhones. I toured the facility last summer. It is a pristine white environment filled with WALL-E-like robots ferrying boxes full of silicon wafers from one station to the next. Every detail of the factory is measured by sensors pouring data […]