The Third General Assembly of the National Technological Cluster “Intelligent Factories” (CFI) was held on Tuesday, October 4th, in the context of 30.BI-MU, Fieramilano. The event had two apical moments: the first, in the morning, was the General Assembly, that brought together the CFI members which currently are 300 (of which 70% representatives of the small and medium enterprise; the remaining 30% delegates of large companies, research centers, associations); the second event, in the afternoon, was the public Conference "The Italian way to the manufacturing of the future".
For the first time Italy, France, Germany and the UK were compared with the respective Clusters for the implementation of plans on the Industry 4.0 in front of a large audience of over 300 people, who were able to attend to interventions - open by the President of the CFI, Gianluigi Viscardi - Stefano Firpo, General Director for Industrial policy, competitiveness and small and medium enterprises, Italian Ministry of Economic Development and Mario Calderini, Research and Innovation Counsellor, Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research .
To follow, the presentations of the representatives of the German, French and English Technological Districts:
- Henning Banthien, Secretary General, Platform Industrie 4.0;
- Michel Carton, CETIM - Centre Technique des Industries Mecaniques;
- Harald Egner, EU & Research Partnership Manager, Manufacturing Technology Centre.
The three speakers, moderated by Professor Tullio Maria Tolio, President of the Technical-Scientific Committee of the Intelligent Cluster Factory, explained how their organizaztions interact with the national governments, companies and research organizations. According to the idea of the EU Commissioner Oettinger, the speakers have agreed to implement the creations of a "Cluster of Clusters", for practical cooperation among the various National Clusters.
The President of the CFI, Gianluigi Viscardi, and the President of the Scientific Committee, Professor Tullio Maria Tolio, highlighted the importance of "the close interaction between enterprises and research institutions," and spoke of this event as "the first strategic and operative comparison of the european national scenes to draw together the future of the Italian Manufacturing".
At the end of the meeting it was presented the progress of the activities of the Technical Scientific-Thematic Groups CFI, which are declining in concrete proposals the contents of the Research and Innovation Roadmap. This Roadmap, regularly updated, is intended to describe visions and strategies for the future of Italian Manufacturing and represents an official position paper for the sector, in which the members of the Cluster could recognize themselves.
