With the emergence of KUBOUŠEK Systems, the KUBOUŠEK Group got over the threshold of a commercial and service company, becoming finally a holding company with technological focus, own development, design, training capacities and production possibilities. The main task of KUBOUŠEK Systems is to provide customer support in the implementation of new systems, technologies and automation. The company is currently building a Technology Center and Education Center in České Budějovice, where it will be able to pass on his know-how to customers. What all this brings to customers of the KUBOUŠEK Group, described Petr Troják, managing director of KUBOUŠEK Systems s.r.o.
Could you introduce KUBOUŠEK Systems to the readers? What services does it provide to customers and how does it work with the other sister companies?
KUBOUŠEK Systems is part of the KTI – KUBOUŠEK Technologies and Instruments business section, which has been engaged in the sale of measuring instruments and systems since 1990. Soon the portfolio was expanded by injection molding machines and all peripheral devices necessary in operation. The establishment of KUBOUŠEK Systems was just a logical step. We provide support just for the above-mentioned devices. We provide application support, manufacturing technologies, build complete automated cells and introduce production. Just in automation, we connect seemingly remote segments of measuring technology and the plastics industry. We are able to prepare a fully automated, unattended production line, including 100% output quality control, right at the factory.
The establishment of the Technology Center is certainly a key milestone for the company and the entire KUBOUŠEK Group. What do you expect from the Technology Center and what can a customer expect from it?
We would like to introduce our customers innovative high-end technologies directly on our machines. The customer will have the unique opportunity to use our machines equipped with MuCell, Roctool, APC+ technologies to start or test their project. At the Technology Center, we will also deal with the integration of peripheral devices and automation into complex production units. We also want to focus on the implementation of manufacturing information systems and further development towards Industry 4.0. The Czech Republic and Slovak are per capita world leaders in plastics production, especially for automotive industry. Here I see the great potential and the future of these innovative technologies. Choose any car model and compare its two latest versions – you will always see a huge jump in the technologies used. Car manufacturers and not only they cannot sleep and must still use new knowledge. The customers can expect us to present new technologies and help them implement them in the production process.
So, can we say that the Technology Center will be a demonstration of the latest technologies the customer will choose from?
The Technology Center will serve as a showroom. This means that the customer can apply the technology in practice and discuss its eventual application in his plant with our specialist. The fact that new technologies will be presented here is, of course, very important, but it is not the only benefit for the customer. An Education Center is established along with the Technology Center. There will be a wider choice of courses and training, and also cooperation with universities and secondary technical schools is starting. We have offered them specific long-term cooperation programs that will be of benefit to both parties. Schools welcome the opportunity to involve their students in technological and manufacturing companies.
And let us not forget that the unused capacity of our machines will be available to our partners if they get into production problems – for example due to a failure of their own machines.
In recent years, the term Industry 4.0 has often been used. It is probably connected with the Technology Center. What do you specifically perceive under this concept and how is the Technology Center prepared for Industry 4.0?
I perceive the Industry 4.0 as a direction that all manufacturing industries will sooner or later set forth. This is a broad topic from the virtual planning of entire halls, through automated production, predictive maintenance, and relating logistics. At our Technology Center, we are ready to help our customers with the implementation of new technologies towards fully automated production. In order to achieve this vision, it is necessary to work on multiple fronts. It is necessary to automate machine operation, control, quality, collect production data, and evaluate them in real time. At present, we are able to deal with projects of automation of plastics production, follow-up control of parts, and all this with 6-axis or even collaborative robots for our customers. We further address the requirements for the collection and evaluation of production data and the testing of new technologies on injection molding machines.
Generally, the vision of Industry 4.0 is to create an autonomous production hall with remote control and automated capacity planning. In practice, it means you enter how many pieces of product you want to produce and then you just wait for the truck to be filled with finished parts.