Covid-19, whose health and social consequences we have not fully overcome, has also left its particular consequences on the global supply chain and industry: from a mismatch in the relationship between supply and demand, together with a stoppage forced by the blockage in the Suez Canal a few months ago, to the problems in obtaining raw materials to keep the production of semiconductors and all kinds of goods running.
It may seem that the current supply crisis is temporary, but nothing is further from the truth. This is an issue that goes far beyond what we see today and touches on other major challenges such as the search for sustainability in production processes, the need to find new and more accessible materials and the essential path towards digitization of plants.
"Industry 4.0 is basically based on the union of physical systems -such as machines, robots and warehouses- with the 'cyber' world, including ubiquitous connectivity, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence...", explains Carlos Balaguer, Researcher responsible for the Robotics Lab group at the Carlos III University of Madrid.
During a meeting with researchers and companies around the UC3M Science Park, Balaguer explained his view of the lack of supplies: "There is a temporary factor, due to the closure of factories, especially in China due to covid-19, but there is another linked to relocation as factories have left the US and Europe. Although here we have to take into account that many of these industrial powers are also immersed in a structural change to stop producing cheap products with little added value".
"Robotics is one of the pillars of industry 4.0. Until today, robots were in cages, protected so that no one could enter and that there were no accidents. Right now the concept is that of collaborative robots, which interact with humans, combining the speed and support of heavy weights of robots with the better touch and global concept of the plant that people have. And increasingly incorporating artificial intelligence to facilitate their decision-making", analyzes the researcher.
In turn, Isabel García Gutiérrez, researcher in charge of the Engineering Group of the Organization of this same university, acknowledges that the challenges of the supply chain "are enormous because they are seeking greater resilience, when in recent years the key was to improve speed and efficiency. She further adds that "shortages in some materials are here to stay and are already causing price volatility."
"Companies are creating risk management teams, also involving their suppliers, to align the industry with the supply chain and be more agile. Because the slowest link is the one that sets the pace for the entire chain. And then there is the issue of relocation, although there is an obvious difficulty with the costs, compared to the interest in simplifying their supply chains and making them closer", explains García Gutiérrez.
The researcher also alludes to regulatory complexity as another cause of the complex situation the industry is going through: "We have divergent environmental regulations and a trade conflict between China and the United States that are distorting standard prices and creating uncertainties that we must take really".
On the other hand, Jean-Yves Sánchez, a researcher in the UC3M Materials Synthesis and Processing group, delved into how innovation can play a great role in the search for new materials, for example, in the energy field.
A moment from the round table of UC3M researchers on industry, relocation and new materials.
"If Europe continues to make progress so that electricity is the main source of energy for transport, then we must have an important activity in batteries and storage systems and look for alternative materials that allow us to be autonomous. An example is calcium batteries, a material that abounds in Europe and that would allow us to be strong against the current lithium industry based in Korea, China or Japan".
Not only the energy aspect brings with it challenges in terms of materials. "We have to take care of the critical 'raw materials', those that are scarcer in Europe. Magnesium, without going any further, we usually think we have a lot but in reality we don't. And of course we must be very intensive in innovation to develop new materials, but the academic community is still not very sensitive to the patents that are essential to achieve this goal Innovation that must also focus on safety, because batteries today contain materials that are potentially dangerous -such as lithium salt- and for those of us who have to look for alternatives," adds Sánchez.
A business network that seeks solutions
The vision of the researchers at the Carlos III University of Madrid is confirmed by the reality experienced by some of the technology-based and innovative companies that operate in the area of its science park.
Sergio Rivera, CTO and partner at Nanoker, a startup from the Go2SpaceHUBs program led by UC3M and dedicated to the manufacture of ceramic materials, states that he is seeing "the volatility of the market, both in the supply of raw materials and in the price of energy, which it represents 2-3% of the final cost of the product. Other industries are experiencing it more than us, but to put figures we manufactured 25,000-30,000 components last year. And to produce them we need between four and five tons of raw material for our parts that weigh less than a kilo.
"Most of the technical ceramics industry is based in Taiwan or the US. Europe needs to regain technological sovereignty and balance the balance. There are some European initiatives to do so, but it is a long-term plan and it will be the great challenge we face." continental level," he adds.
In turn, Iván Olmeda, CEO of AEQ (Quasar Electronic Applications, an SME from Leganés Tecnológico dedicated to the production of electronic products for the audiovisual field) acknowledges that he is "suffering to a great extent the whole problem of supplying semiconductors".
A moment from the round table of companies around the UC3M Park on industry, relocation and new materials.
"We have a very extensive catalogue, of a hundred products, for which we have 20,000 references of different components", he details, before complementing his fellow panelist: "The relocation of production in Europe is now more viable than it was a few years when they went to China or Asia, because thanks to industry 4.0, digitization and robotics we can achieve the same cost-optimized processes that were sought".
Finally, Gianluca Foschini, head of innovation for OTIS Europe, stressed the need to take advantage of the creativity that characterizes Spain or Italy to take advantage of this particular contest, "in the face of relocation and lack of public support" that has prevailed until now.
Although Foschini acknowledges that Otis has not been as affected by the supply crisis as its peers, it does defend the need to provide European industry with speed and flexibility through "the search for alternative materials, and the use of simulation that allow us to imitate the shape of materials or develop new types of electric motors or more optimized batteries".