Published on: Wednesday, 09 January 2019

Gerard O'Donovan and Dr John Hobbs represented CIT at the IN4.0 3rd Project Steering Committee Meeting, in Glasgow, Scotland, on the 11th and 12th of December.

On the 11th of December the IN4.0 consortium met at the University of Strathclyde Technology & Innovation Centre, where they boarded a bus to visit the Ferguson Marine Engineering shipyard. The consortium were greeted by Chris Dunn, Chief Naval Architect at Ferguson Marine for an overview of the firm and its development since 1903. With over 100 years of heritage, Ferguson are investing heavily in technology and infrastructure to deliver quality assured, world-class shipbuilding, ship repair, fabrication and engineering services.

Image: The IN4.0 Consortium eager to learn more about Ferguson Marine from Chris Dunn, Chief Naval Architect.

Of equal importance to Ferguson Marine is the training of new staff and at reduction of the average age of the workforce as the company looks to innovative ways to get young people involved and trained to replace older staff (with significant experience of boat building) nearing retirement. It was extremely interesting to tour the shipyard and see the different areas where Ferguson deliver their core Shipbuilding, Service & Repairs and Retrofit & Conversion services.

That evening the partnership visited The Black House Grill to share an evening meal on the invitation of HSSMI Advanced manufacturing Innovation Institute.

The second meeting day started when partners met at the main entrance of the building of the Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean & Marine Engineering University of Strathclyde and were guided to the meeting room by Manuela Bujorianu to start the 3rd SC meeting.

Image: The In4.0 Consortium at the 3rd Stakeholder Meeting in the Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean & Marine Engineering University of Strathclyde 12/12/2018

The key elements discussed at this meeting were the four main elements of the working plan:

1. IN CONTEXT: this is the starting point towards the adaptation to a new production model based on the existing state of the art, detecting innovations applicable to the 4.0 technologies which are relevant for the naval sector
2. IN WORK AND IN TRAINING: protocol for the redefinition of tasks performed by workers and qualification of the staff of the sector
3. IN COMMERCIALIZATION AND COSTS: reduction in the costs of the implementation of technologies and new commercialization methods
4. IN ADAPTATION: guidance for the transformation of naval companies into intelligent companies

Image: Dr John Hobbs speaking at the 3rd Stakeholder Meeting in the Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean & Marine Engineering University of Strathclyde 12/12/2018

One of the positive outcomes from the meeting related to the IN 4.0 Connect Platform. Three key elements were discussed which could support its expansion.

Internationalisation via the IN4.0 Platform. CIT have spoken to Interreg Joint Secretariat about possibility of adding US based firms to the platform and also some additional clusters from the UK to support expansion.
An initiative to support connections between the firms – “linked social media campaign”.
Opportunity to Link the IN 4.0 and CONSORTEX projects and utilise IN 4.0 Connect to add to the export consortia with connection requests – this would drive and create connections for the IN 4.0 project regarding the remit to link and connect firms across the AA and Globally.

Image: The IN4.0 Connect Platform available via http://in40connect.cit.ie/.

The IN4.0 project is funded by the Interreg Atlantic Area programme and aims to enhance the competitiveness of the companies in the naval sector through their adaptation to the production model of the industry 4.0, granting in this way the sector participation in an increasingly demanding market, where innovation is a key factor for their strategic positioning.

The project is led by Deputación de Pontevedra based in Vigo, Spain gathering the partners Fórum Oceano (PT), Cork Institute of Technology (IE), Foro Maritimo Vasco, Aclunaga and ASIME (ES), Bretagne Pôle Naval and EMC2 (FR) and HSSMI and the University of Strathclyde (UK).