OPPENT - Business paradigm shift, pay-per-use and R&D profiles

With what technological proposal does your company participate in the JAI 2022?

Oppent presents itself as a manufacturer of Mobile Robot.?We present?robotic logistics products?for healthcare and industry through the EVOCart family of products.

Sustainability?is one of the?challenges that is currently worrying the industry.?Can you propose a?roadmap?to address the challenge of sustainability in industrial processes?

The current context is a challenge for everyone as the global problem of supply and energy costs have generated an even greater gap between Spanish industries and other countries.

SUSTAINABILITY: Energy costs have generated an even greater gap between Spanish industries and other countries

This industry is concerned with?making?and?producing?production but it does not study and plan the process perfectly.?I exclude from this perhaps the automotive sector, which has a different tradition.?I believe that the most important focus of improvement is productivity, the hourly impact on the billing of each euro of labor.?In this sense, Oppent contributes, not only with products, but also with analysis, both in healthcare and in industry, to efficient cost management and rationalization; the key exists, and the gap can be?shortened?, but it requires a process a forced change of mentality that I believe is already penetrating the Spanish industrial sector.

Does your firm propose any technology or service to make industrial companies more sustainable?

Specifically, from Oppent we propose solutions that contribute enormously to sustainability.?Traditional manual logistics processes have a strong impact on the cost of production.?The modernization and innovation introduced into the production process through?the mobile robots not only improve their profitability by offering a quick and measurable return on investment,?but also contribute to work ergonomics, professional retraining of workers in contact with technology and, of course, improvement in occupational health, an aspect that has a double effect, both in terms of the impact on workers, as well as on business costs due to accidents..

At the same time, safety conditions are improved with vehicles equipped with all kinds of sensors aimed at avoiding accidents and therefore human damage.?Finally, the technological improvement of the driving elements such as motors and batteries gradually reduce the energy cost associated with the process, thus decreasing our ecological footprint, a very present factor in the concept of sustainability.

Another of the demands of the industry is in the use of?technology as a service. Do you think that contracting industrial technology services is a trend that will be consolidated in the coming years?

Without a doubt, it is?a model in development that fits perfectly with our technology.?There are companies that intend to offer logistics services 4.0 where payment is per service, for movements or transport, making the renting model obsolete.?It is about going one step further, offering robotic logistics that will cover a need, with process monitoring, reporting, real-time connectivity and the ability to provide the necessary metrics that help us understand and optimize the process.?The final step of this model, it is already proposing, is the so-called "pay per use" or payment for use, which would mean the offer of a technology that is quoted based on an hourly price of use, or €/km, €/ movement etc.

SERVICES: 'pay per use' in mobile robots would mean the offer of a technology that is quoted based on an hourly price of use, or €/km, €/movement, etc.

In industrial production lines, especially those subject to temporality, we believe that it can be a highly indicated model that allows the industrialist to give a final cost of the product, including logistics.

Does your company offer hardware, software or services on a subscription basis?

Not currently

Another critical area for the success of industrial companies is?talent management. What type of talent is your organization prioritizing?

Oppent, as a multinational company, is in the process of growth through a significant increase in demand especially during the last year.?In our case?, the profiles at the factory level are technical profiles?at the level of assembly, wiring and programming and calibration of machines.?Likewise?, growth implies new R&D profiles?linked to mechanical design and software development.?Finally, the?production planning and organization process is a branch that is growing?: stock management, production line logistics and supply are fundamental in accompanying this growth process.

TALENT: Knowledge in stock management, production line logistics and procurement are essential?

How would you define the contribution made by the JAI to the advancement of industrial automation at a local and national level?

The JAIs undoubtedly?give a boost, especially regional, to the promotion of modernization and inclusion of new industrial technologies.?It is no less important, at the same time, to be?able to spread among university and non-university youth with concerns in the industrial sector so that we capture their attention and interest in developing in this world, since they are, without a doubt, the future of this industry.

The lack of qualified profiles is nowadays, unfortunately, a widespread problem.?This situation forces companies to train people and recycle similar profiles, with a significant time gap between entering the company and the moment in which the worker can be autonomous in his work and therefore bring profitability to the process.?It is obligatory to reduce between all these times to improve, as I said in previous questions, the competitiveness of the national industry and reduce the gap with our European neighbors.

Any other topic that we haven't discussed but that you want to bring to the table?

The current context has caused a particular situation that is widespread among the companies that produce technologies.?On the one hand, there is a strong demand for products and projects that we must face, which implies the unavoidable need for qualified human capital, on the other hand, supply times mean that the projects in question are extended over time, thus creating a major backlog that should give us stability and growth, but with the delays in delivery and production times, this creates a huge gap between projects and their invoicing.

Public and private institutions such as banks must become aware and bet especially on technology at this time?, since we need them to accompany us and support us as long as this?gap?does not decrease otherwise many companies, perfectly sustainable a priori, will fall by the wayside due to purely financial.?Companies grow through sales, but sometimes it takes time to capitalize enough for public and/or private financial credit institutions to bet on them.?There is still much room for improvement in this aspect and it requires institutions, especially at times like these, to rise to the occasion.