Published on: Monday, 27 November 2017

The project ‘Intelligent Naval 4.0’ or IN 4.0 for short, focuses on the modernisation of the naval industry was launched this week in Vigo. The consortium brings together several naval clusters and academic institutions from across Spain, France, Portugal, United Kingdom and Ireland. The project is led by Diputación Provincial de Pontevedra in Galicia, Spain, and aims to promote the modernization of the naval sector through the implementation of actions that help to transform SMEs in 4.0, identifying barriers that prevent the innovation of business model of naval sector, improving the companies` productive processes, transforming the work organization systems, knowledge and commercialization, as well as training workers of the naval sector in new occupations /tasks. IN4.0 project has a total budget of 2.5 million euros to invest in the next 3 years.

The partnership is completed by Bretagne Pôle Naval (France); Cork Institute of Technology (Ireland); Fórum Oceano – Associação da Economia do Mar (Portugal); Asociación Cluster del Naval Gallego (Spain); University of Strathclyde (United Kingdom); Foro Marítimo Vasco (Spain); Pôle de compétitivité EMC2 (France); Asociación de Industriales Metalúrgicos de Galicia (Spain) and High Speed Sustainable Manufacturing Institute Ltd. (United Kingdom).

The project kick off was hosted by Metalships, in the heart of the port in Vigo. A welcome and introduction was provided by Abel Caballero, Major of the City of Vigo and María del Carmen Silva, President of the County Council of Pontevedra. This introduction was followed by a short presentation by each of the ten project partners which focused on their competencies and what they will bring to Naval 4.0.  

Image: Abel Caballero, Major of the City of Vigo during his presentation at the kick-off of Naval 4.0. Whilst María del Carmen Silva, President of the County Council of Pontevedra looks on.

A presentations was made by Gregorio Ameyugo, Deputy Director, CEA LIST (France), who outlined “the French experience implementing Industry 4.0 technologies and its potential application to the shipyards of the future.” The session finished with a discussion on a number of practical cases regarding the implementation of technologies to the naval sector from Daniel Gesto, Head of Advanced Manufacturing Macroprocesses Unit - R&D Area at AIMEN and Pablo Currás, General Services - R&D+I, Metalships Ltd.

Dr John Hobbs, attended the Kick-off of the Naval 4.0 project on behalf of Irish partner Cork Institute of Technology, and he looks forward to inputting into the project. Dr Hobbs explains “CIT’s role will be one of facilitation and management in the Naval 4.0 project. CIT will be leading Work Package 6 – ‘Intelligent Naval Commercialisation and Costs’ within which CIT will provide a platform and programme to allow firms from across Europe to connect to support the adaptation of Industry 4.0 model to the naval sector. Essentially, this relates to brokerage of connections between IT firms and the Naval industry and communicating good practices to build cross-cluster collaboration.”  

Image: Representatives from Diputación Provincial de Pontevedra (Spain); Bretagne Pôle Naval (France); Cork Institute of Technology (Ireland); Fórum Oceano – Associação da Economia do Mar (Portugal); Asociación Cluster del Naval Gallego (Spain); University of Strathclyde (United Kingdom); Foro Marítimo Vasco (Spain); Pôle de compétitivité EMC2 (France); Asociación de Industriales Metalúrgicos de Galicia (Spain) and High Speed Sustainable Manufacturing Institute Ltd. (United Kingdom) at the Naval 4.0 project kick off in the Metalships Ltd Dockyard in Vigo, Spain.