Industry of the future: a report from the Top Industry Summit

On October 14, the “Top Industry Summit” conference was held at The Westin Warsaw hotel, during which the key directions of industry development were discussed. Three discussion panels, four presentations and 12 “Top Industry Diamonds” handed out – this is just a summary of what happened during the 9th edition of the conference.

The substantive part of the event was opened by a speech by Paweł Kolczyński, Vice President of the Management Board at the Industrial Development Agency, on the pandemic in the economic sphere. The speaker pointed out that despite unfavorable conditions, the Polish economy, losing 8% of GDP, is one of the three economies in which this decline was the lowest. Only in Lithuania and Finland the decline was smaller than in Poland. Among the important macroeconomic data, it is also worth paying attention to the stabilization of unemployment and an increase in employment in industry. The operating model of companies has also changed – digitization has accelerated dynamically, and thus the “train” called Industry 4.0 is departing faster and faster, and it is very important to implement appropriate solutions and be able to get in.

After this introduction, it was time for panel discussions. The subject of the first of them were intelligent factories and its moderator was prof. Andrzej Kolasa – Dean of the Faculty of Production Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology. The discussion was attended by: Ireneusz Borowski – Country Manager, Dassault Systèmes; Marek Dalka – Manager of the Innovation, Incentive and Subsidy Department, Ayming Polska; Piotr Mendyk – Sales and Business Development Director, responsible for cooperation with clients in the Production, Industry and Construction industry, Orange Polska SA; Artur Pollak – President of the Board, APA Group; Andrzej Szałek – Board Advisor, Toyota Motor Poland. Should the implementation of new technologies be the goal of enterprises business activities? The panellists agreed to this question that it is not a goal, but a way by which the quality and efficiency of work and energy consumption can be improved. By implementing new technologies, such as automation, the question may quickly arise, what do we need employees for? “This is not the way, robots will never replace people,” said Ireneusz Borowski and added that new technologies should only be used in those areas where it will help us. Currently, the use of robots and cobots in enterprises in Poland is 2 times lower than in our southern neighbors and 10 times lower than on our western border. Let’s work wisely, not hard, and therefore any repetitive work performed by a human should be automated. Summarizing this panel, we can say that revolution 4.0 is an evolutionary technological change, the effect of which is revolutionary.

“Polish business and industrial intelligence” – this was the title of the second speech today which author was Artur Pollak –  President of the Board, APA Group. Large companies and corporations are after the 4.0 revolution and already are a part of the entire supply chain. The speaker in his presentation told, among others about the role of SMEs and Polish entrepreneurs in the revolution 4.0 and about where to look for appropriate models and how to effectively implement them in their organizations. Moreover, he has presented case study on the factors limiting economic activity in managing the business ecosystem of the largest steel producer in Europe, located in Silesia.