PACS Solutions, Iskren Gornishkey: The paradox of Bulgarian industry – enterprises are technologically ready, but too conservative for digitalization
• Automation & Robotics • Company articles • South-East European INDUSTRIAL Мarket - issue 4/2024 • 04.11.2024
The cost of digitalization and automation is paid back within an average of up to 12 months
Iskren Gornishkey, founder and owner of PACS Solutions, for South-East European Industrial Market Magazine
How do you assess the readiness of the Bulgarian industry to adopt new technologies and is the average enterprise "running away" from digital transformation?
From a technical and technological point of view, the Bulgarian industry, in general, is ready for faster digitization and automation of production processes. The problem is the actual pace at which this is done, it is a paradox.
The annual studies carried out by the EU clearly show that Bulgarian enterprises are still seriously lagging behind, considering the average European levels, and even more so, having in mind the goals we should reach by 2030.
What strategic approaches do you use to convince of the advantages of automation?
The best and most effective way to show the benefits of manufacturing process automation is through numbers and figures. It is a fact that the costs of automation in a small or medium-sized enterprise (such as nearly 95% of the companies in Bulgaria) are paid within 6 to 18 months. Thus, every owner or manager can easily make a preliminary estimate of what the economic effect would be for the next 5 years, for example.
More importantly, however, this is how the cost of production is reduced, and the company maintains and/or improves its position on the market compared to other players.
What are the main barriers and misconceptions that limit companies from investing more distinctly in digitalization? Do manufacturers follow global trends and innovations and are they aware of the potential benefits, according to your observations?
In our opinion, the main reason is excessive conservatism on the part of managers and owners, perhaps dictated by the misunderstanding that in the modern world competitive advantage cannot be achieved only with new technologies and modern equipment. They miss the importance of full digitization and automation of production – from the input of the raw material to the shipment of the finished product. In fact, with all other things being equal, it reduces costs, reduces unplanned downtime, ensures consistent quality and provides comprehensive information, through which enterprises can derive even more benefits.
Another common practice is to implement innovations and modernize production mainly (or only) with the support of programs with grant schemes. This is understandable from the point of view of supporting investment costs, but on the other hand, the programs used (most often European funding) take longer, 1,5-2 years from the application to the finalization/acceptance of the project. The contradiction is that, as we said above, if own funds are invested, they will already be returned within this period, and even earlier.
What impact does the shortage of personnel have on production in Bulgaria and what solutions do you propose to this problem?
The problem with the lack of specialists directly involved in the production process, such as mechanical, automation and electrical engineers, operators of control and measurement instrumentation, technicians, etc. deepens more and more. What can be done and what we offer to our customers is, in addition to digitizing the process, to automate it as much as possible. Such an approach, however, only partially solves the staffing problem.
What role does employee training play in successfully extracting the full potential of integrated platforms?
Training is not only necessary, but also mandatory. Digitalized and automated production systems require qualitatively different and higher-level knowledge and skills, which should be maintained and periodically refreshed. No matter how well a modern production platform is designed and implemented, without a highly qualified staff of engineers, technicians and operators, it could never achieve its goals and objectives.
What methods do you use to measure the effectiveness of the implemented systems?
The effectiveness of digitalization and automation can easily be measured by looking at the results for a given period (with all other things being equal) – the volume of finished products, respectively scrap, the energy and labor costs incurred.
If the technological process is well organized and clarified, then the question is not whether there is a positive effect, but how great it is. Here we should mention one very important aspect of digitalization and automation of production processes – if the process itself is not organized and optimized, no digitalization and automation efforts would be able to improve it. On the contrary, the effect would be negative.
What particular results do your clients achieve after having their production processes automated and optimized?
What we have as feedback from our customers can be summarized as follows – reduced costs for electricity, water, steam and gas, less involved human labor, stable quality and reduced waste. The figures are different for different types of production, raw materials and resources; therefore, the range of the final results is quite wide. But again, we should emphasize that the cost of digitalization and automation is paid back within an average of up to 12 months.