GOIMEK 4.0, a digital industry benchmark project in Gipuzkoa

• The Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa gets first-hand information on the project in situ during a visit headed by Ainhoa Aizpuru, the deputy for Economic Development, Rural Environment and Territorial Balance

• The meeting is framed in the Gipuzkoa 4.0 Network of Advanced Manufacturing programme in which GOIMEK participates, and during which more than 400 people were presented success cases in Industry 4.0

• Aizpuru emphasised the relevance of projects like the one of this DANOBATGROUP cooperative for the industrial fabric of Gipuzkoa

With a view to boosting collaboration among benchmark companies in digitalization and SMEs from Gipuzkoa, GOIMEK, specialised in high-precision machining, presented its Industry 4.0 skills during an event attended by a delegation from the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa.

The event took place in the facilities of GOIMEK in Itziar and was presided over by Ainhoa Aizpuru, the Deputy for Economic Development, Rural Environment and Territorial Balance, and was also attended by a group of companies of the Basque Country to witness real experiences in digital industry projects.

This encounter, framed in the Gipuzkoa 4.0 Network of Advanced Manufacturing, served to take stock of the first year of activity of this pioneer collaborative program in the Basque Country, which seeks to facilitate the technological leap to Industry 4.0. for SMEs, and which has made it possible for various companies and technology centres leading the way in this field to showcase the potential and applications of digital industry to the rest of the industrial fabric.

During the visit to the GOIMEK cooperative of DANOBATGROUP, the deputy learned about the GOIMEK 4.0 initiative. This project consists of providing machines with advanced sensing and monitoring solutions that allow a systematic and real-time capture of key performance data in manufacturing processes.

"The production sector is immersed in what some experts call the fourth industrial revolution, brought about by Industry 4.0. Our business fabric, consisting of mainly SMEs, has a series of strengths but also weaknesses, one of which is the difficulty to ride this wave successfully. It is therefore important that projects of excellence such as GOIMEK 4.0 open their doors to other SMEs to study the potential of production systems and 4.0 management" Aizpuru said.

A project in real work conditions

GOIMEK 4.0 is a demonstration project in real working conditions that allows monitoring of machines installed in a production plant, enables remote visualisation of the status of the equipment, and analyses the captured information to diagnose any faults, perform predictive maintenance and optimise the efficiency of machining processes.

The sensors installed on the machines capture information that is stored in the cloud so that it can be visualised in such a way that it is possible to perform diagnostics, check the existence of repeated operation patterns, anticipate incidents and failures, correct malfunctions and avoid downtimes.

"Thus, we are able to optimise efficiency in production management and machining processes to increase machine availability and reduce energy consumption", explains GOIMEK´s managing director Aitor Alkorta.

The project is designed around the interconnection of a total of six high-value-added units, equipped with digital industrial devices developed by the company itself and manufactured thanks to the R&D efforts of DANOBATGROUP.

A winner among this equipment is the FS-16000 cutting-edge multifunction center, a machine designed to achieve first-quality results in machining highly technically complex bulky parts.

"In short, GOIMEK 4.0 provides the possibility to capture, store, process and analyse data from machines to optimise the operation of production systems, improve efficiency, make real-time decisions and save costs", Alkorta summarises.

The project forms part of the commitment to digital industry of DANOBAT GROUP, a business group that invests 8% of its annual income in R&D and has a digital value proposal combing proprietary solutions to capture and analyse data from machines and for automated control unit of equipment.

A network to make headway

GOIMEK 4.0 is one of the initiatives selected by the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa to form part of its Gipuzkoa 4.0 Network of Advanced Manufacturing strategy, a tool that seeks to boost the development of Industry 4.0, strengthen synergies among Basque SMEs and share experiences of benchmark companies in Gipuzkoa in the area of digitalization.

More than 400 people from around 200 companies have participated to date in conferences held in the framework of this programme, which forms part of the 2016-2019 road map for economic recovery and that has a precursor in Germany, the Plattform Induestrie 4.0. In November, five new encounters will be held that will conclude the conferences planned for this year.

Leading companies and technology centres of the area have shared their achievements and showcased their advanced technology to SMEs from Gipuzkoa through guided visits, practical content and individual action in companies, with the aim of delivering targeted training, diagnosis, specific advice, tests or prototypes. 

In addition, the Provincial Government has completed these conferences with the launch of a programme of technological vouchers that aims to support small and medium-sized enterprises in taking steps in the transit toward industry 4.0. This call, which is still open, with a budget of 400,000 Euros, grants a maximum of 8,000 euros to SMEs who, in collaboration with the technological centres of the area, initiate projects to advance in the Industry 4.0 concepts.

 "The future of our industry is at stake with this transformation and as such our future as a region as well. It is important that nobody, no business will be left behind in this technological transformation", the deputy concluded.

GOIMEK digital industrial project