Around 27 company representatives attended a seminar held by TradeMalta on the 29th of July to discuss the future of advanced manufacturing. This topic was chosen as manufacturing companies will need to adopt new technologies and innovative processes to ensure they remain competitive in a rapidly changing sector.
The session opened with a presentation about the Fourth Industrial Revolution delivered by Mr JP Fabri from ARQ Group. Based on a new publication available on TradeMalta's website, the study assessed Malta's manufacturing journey and how Industry 4.0 will usher in changes to business models, outputs, competition and skills.
Dr. Ing. Emmanuel Francalanza, a lecturer in industrial and manufacturing engineering at the University of Malta, followed with a talk about the university's collaborative projects with companies in the manufacturing industry. These projects have typically addressed challenges such as sustainability and energy efficiency, product development and process improvement. Dr. Ing. Francalanza also gave an overview of the state-of-the-art research and significant advances currently happening in the manufacturing industry, namely additive manufacturing, micro- and nano-manufacturing, and digital manufacturing.
Ing. Arthur Tua, director of Sentech Malta FP Ltd was invited to recount Sentech's successful internationalisation story. The company has managed to position itself as a leading international player when it comes to the development, manufacture and testing of custom-built gyroscopes. Sentech now supplies its Fizoptika fibre optic gyroscopes to some of the topmost companies operating in the aerospace and transport industries.
The seminar was closed off with a series of presentations given by representatives from Malta Enterprise about the support available to Maltese manufacturing companies looking to innovate. Mr. Pierre Theuma, CEO of the Malta Life Sciences Park, spoke about the entity's role as a national focal point to promote research and development, life sciences and information technology. Mr. Karl Herrera, Chief Officer of Incentives Development Evaluation and Monitoring, highlighted some of the incentives offered by Malta Enterprise to businesses that are looking to innovate and conduct research and development. And finally, Ms. Brigitte Tanti, Head of EU Programmes at Malta Enterprise, delivered a talk on how companies can boost their competitiveness through innovation management.
This seminar was co-funded through the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) - Operational Programme I 2014-2020 - 'Fostering a competitive and sustainable economy to meet our challenges.'