On May 23rd, EFESME succesfully organised the 2019 edition of the SBS Lift Forum on Digitalisation, in the framework of the 2019 SBS sectoral approach. This is the third edition of this forum, after a very promising start in 2017, when the agenda was focused on standardisation, and last year edition, which marked the starting point of EFESME’s work and study of Digitalisation in the lift sector.

This year, the forum agenda focused on the opportunities and risks created by Digitalisation in the lift sector. Following President Massimo Bezzi’s vision, EFESME decided to study in depth the more promising aspects of Digitalisation, as well as the threats in may pose to small and medium enterprises that do not know this phenomenon well enough to understand its numerous and very different sides.

The day started with EFESME President, Mr Massimo Bezzi, opening the event by presenting and explaining why EFESME chose Digitalisation as the main topic to analyse and study during the next years. In his speech, the President underlined how EFESME believes that Digitalisation can have very positive effects in the daily work of SMEs, but can also create risks and threats that may seriously damage them.

Download – President Bezzi’s speech on Digitalisation in the lift sector

To follow this idea, EFESME organized the forum in four different sessions, spanning a day. The first two, which saw presentations from the European Commission and different European organizations, such as SMEunited, CEN-CENELEC, and IDC – Innovation and Development Consulting, were more theoretical, to give to our guests a general idea of what Digitalisation is and how it can involve the Lift sector.

Download – 2019 SBS Lift Forum Programme

The first speaker of our first session was Mr Luc Hendrickx, Director of SMEunited. Mr Hendrickx, who was also the moderator for the day, explained to the audience what SBS – Small Business Standards is, and what are its commitments and policies regarding Digitalisation and SMEs. He showed how rather frequently SMEs do not have basic digital skills, and underlined the importance to invest in continuous training to keep SMEs up-to-date with the most recent digital innovation. On the other hand, Mr Hendrickx also introduced Cybersecurity, a topic that was deeply explored later in the day.

Download – SBS’s committment and policies on Digitalisation for SMEs

Following Mr Hendrickx’s speech, Mr Martin Übelhör, Head of Sector for Cybersecurity investment, research and industrial policy at DG CNECT, spoke about the Cybersecurity policies the European Commission has developed, with a special attention to capacity building and SMEs. Mr Übelhör highlighted the need for digitalisation for companies, and how they are not making the most of it, agreeing on what was previously stated by Hendrickx. He also explained what the European Innovation Hubs are, which is the Cybersecurity policy of the EU, and what are the EU initiative to support companies and SMEs in digitalising and protecting themselves.

Download – Cybersecurity policies and capacity building

The second session saw speeches from CEN-CENELEC and IDV – Innovation and Development Consulting.

Mr Constant Kohler, Programme Manager in the standardisation department of CEN-CENELEC, presented the work his organizations are doing regarding digital transformation and the opportunities this phenomenon is creating for SMEs. He showed how digitalisation is a challenge for standardisation, presented CEN-CENELEC priorities in this field, and introduced the audience to the CEN-CENELEC Strategic Plan for Digital Transformation and to its four pilot projects, giving some very interesting inputs to his public.

Download – Standardisation: digital transformation and opportunities for SMEs

The next speaker was Mr Davide Meinero, managing director at IDV, who presented this work into and the results of the CECE’s research on Digitalisation the Construction Sector, underlining the meaning as well as the impact and barriers of digitalisation, the need for new skills and competences, as well as the existence of valid case studies that can be examples to study and follow to see how digitalisation have been implemented in an area rather near to and quite involved with the lift sector.

Download – Digitalisating the Construction Sector

Download – CECE’s research on Digitalising the Construction Sector 

The afternoon sessions, on the other hand, were more practical, and they were about actual innovations, problems, ideas, and difficulties met my SMEs already using several digital means in their daily work. These sessions saw presentations and case studies from Sweden, Italy, and Spain.

The first to take the floor was Mr Ivan Ferrarini, Director and Tech Area Coordinator of FARMA srl and EFESME/SBS expert, who presented the evolution of lift technology in the past two centuries, explaining whichw ere the challenges and opportunities that every step towards the modern lift faced along the years. Mr Ferrarini also spoke about the need for an open system in the lift sector, and the equally important need for a higher cybersecurity to keep sensitive data safe. The Latin notion Quis custodiet ipsos custodes (“Who watches the watchers?”) was a poignant reminder of the risks of digitalisation.

Special thanks to Mr Lars Odlen, from Remote Quality Management, who prepared this presentation and was supposed to give it, but was unable to attend the forum.

Download – Lift Technologies: challenges and opportunities

After Mr Ferrarini, Mr Rocco Iacchetti, the Responsible for electronic development at Gruppo Millepiani S.p.a., presented this Italian SME as a pilot case of SME using the Internet of Things (IoT) applied to the lift sector. Mr Iacchetti showed the audience how Millepiani integrated  digitalisation in their plants, taking into account predictive maintenance, cybersecurity, and other important aspects to tackle different issues when installing a lift.

Download – IoT: Integration, Predictive Maintenance, Cybersecurity – an SME Pilot Case

The fourth and last session was focused on Spanish SMEs and case studies, thanks to the presentations of Mr Alfredo Gómez, Mr José Maria Compagni, and Mr Alexis Nadal.

Mr Alfredo Gómez, from ITAINNOVA, the Technological Institute of Aragon, presented another example of how digitalisation can create both opportunities and threat for a lift plant. Mr Gómez explained the concept of connected lift, what kind of technology is involved when dealing with lifts and IoT, and the challenges and the barriers an SME will find while working digitally.

Download – The Connected Lift: opportunities and threats

Mr José Maria Compagni, Coordinator of FEPYMA, the Spanish member of EFESME, Owner and Managing Director at Docensas, took the floor as second speaker in this last panel and presented a case study from FEPYMA itself, seizing the opportunity to show the need for a collaborative framework in the sector, for an improved communication between parties involved, and how FEPYMA is using digital means to always stay up-to-date in its daily work. Mr Compagni, too, explained and showed the existence of multiple challenge to SMEs in the lift sector when dealing with digitalisation, but, following the optimism that had been the leitmotiv of the day, supported the idea of using these challenges to improve SMEs.

Download – Challenges of Digital Transformation for the lift independent sector

Finally, Mr Alexis Nadal, CEO of Nayar Systems, spoke about machine learning and lifts, highlighting how IoT can be applied to a SME installing and maintaining lifts. Mr Nadal pointed out the importance of IoT, of big data, as well as of technologies such the A.I. and the Cloud, to show how is it possible to connect a lift to a network, what is necessary to do so, and why it is necessary to take specific steps and precautions while working in digitalisation.

Download – Machine Learning and Elevators

Different Q&A sessions along the day offered to the audience a good opportunity to investigate more in depth the topics explained during the forum. This led to a lively chat among between the guests and the speakers, and allowed everyone to explore new aspects and sides of the important phenomena of Digitalisation and Cybersecurity.

EFESME and SBS thank all speakers and participants, and invite all the interested parties to the seminar EFESME will organize in Augsburg, on October 17th, on the occasion of the InterLift Fair.

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