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Sustainability is high on the industry's agenda. This was reflected in research by Actemium, a brand of VINCI Energies focused on optimising industrial processes. However, engineers will have to show creativity to come up with solutions for the sustainable and digital transformation the industry is facing. That is why Actemium, together with sister brands Axians, AVT Europe and Legendre Conveyors, organised the seminar ‘Towards the sustainable Factory of the Future’ at the art site of the Verbeke Foundation.
“Sustainability is today one of the key points in the strategy of companies - a must that goes beyond simply caring for the environment,” states Luc Clabout, CEO of Actemium Belgium. “It has evolved into a holistic vision that also includes circularity, digitalisation, employee well-being, product innovations and connected ecosystems. The industry wants to move faster than politics in this respect, and that makes us hopeful. Actemium wants to build the future together with its customers step by step, but with the right strategy in mind.”
At Actemium, they are clear: the traditional way of working has to go overboard. Apart from concrete foundations, success also depends on digital foundations. What data are needed to make production processes smarter, faster and more efficient? How can simulation tools and digital twins strengthen competitiveness?
“This is not a simple matter. That's why we want to help companies make the right choices from the start. After all, thanks to our experience with concrete realisations, we have grown from a software supplier to a total partner,” Clabout continues. “We can assist them in the design, but also in the implementation phase, including machinery, piping and electrical piping, as well as in managing the production processes.”
The need for a new way of doing things was also evident from Professor Wayne Visser's keynote, who granted us another 10 years to save the climate. But that can only happen if we are more ambitious. The more ambitious our goals, the more innovative the solutions. Because he believes sustainability does not inspire, he launches a new concept: ‘Thriving’. If we let everything and everyone grow, we will also grow ourselves. And after all, a human being is born to grow.
Thus, we need to achieve six major transitions: from degradation to ecosystem restoration, from resource depletion to a circular economy, from inequality in communities to accountability, from disease to revitalisation, from disconnection to forging new bonds through technology, and from disruption to resilient infrastructure and institutions.
Employees from Guaranteed, CNH Industrial, Pfizer, Puratos and Vandemoortele explained how they are trying to implement sustainability today. This showed that the factory of the future is not purely based on technology, but that above all people are central to the story of making production processes smarter, greener and future-proof. Involving Actemium and its technology partners at an early stage means added value.
After the lectures, people could still participate in two out of a series of six workshops, all focused on the factory of the future: Product Innovation with a digital layer on top of the product, Sustainable Production by connecting the digital and physical worlds, Smart Operational Excellence through a holistic approach, IT4OT for securing the production environment, Integrated End-of-Line solutions that combine the power of technology and the in-depth knowledge of the production ecosystem, and Digitising Production Operations or how digitalisation allows raw materials and employees to be used more efficiently and reduces the ecological footprint. The goal for Actemium is to design, build and operate the sustainable factory of the future together with the customer. Inspiring companies to take that step immediately also formed the basis of their participation in Indumation.
