CADCAM Group embarked together with Končar and Dassault Systemes on the Digital Factory Lab for cooperation between the industry and the academic society.
Manpower is the key to success. Mr. Zlatko Šimunec, owner of CADCAM Group, kept this in mind when he started business. The investing in employee knowledge is the backbone of a continuous development, and also the reason for 30 years of prosperous business.
CADCAM Group started up modestly, by specialising in the development of medical devices to aid people with a hearing-impairment. Being at service to the society was never strange to the company, and nowadays, it is constantly approached for experience exchange by companies from the EU and the USA.
Digital transformation has been conceived for a comprehensive transformation of operational processes. Obviously, it is directed toward enhancement, but the sudden development of IT technologies played a decisive role in the acknowledgement of its importance.
Roadmap Implementation
’20 years ago one could not imagine a development office without a large computer centre worth a couple of thousand euros. Now, all that power is embodied in one laptop worth one thousand euro. So, a hundred times lower price and a smaller computer size boosted the utilization of new technologies.
Further to that, the sudden development of application programs enabled automatization in every development and production section. That’s how we developed our own software, the MECODES for collaboration between ECAD and MCAD development engineers’, said Zlatko Šimunec.
Digital transformation reflecting the present is substantiated by numbers of the International Data Corporation, which predicts that till 2023 digital transformation investment in the world will approach $7.4 trillion. Therefore, it is essential for our companies to be aware of that, and it is their future sustainability that motivates CADCAM Group to persist in its work.
‘At first, a majority of corporations’ management teams will not recognize the benefits, so investment in software will often be reluctant as opposed to investment into machinery. A machine is a tangible tool, costs a couple of hundred thousand euros and will pay off within 10 years. On the other hand, a software is priced at a couple of ten thousand euros, actually much less, and pays off within a year.
Investing into employee knowledge is the backbone of our continuous development and 30 years of prosperous business.
They are hesitant to such investment. They feel insecure about investing into something that is not tangible and that changes their ordinary way of work’, Šimunec added.
The persuasion process takes its time, however, by virtue of an analysis of operational processes the benefits show at the very beginning. That is the transparency which CADCAM’s multidisciplinary teams chose in building business relationships with companies and organizations.
The result of the screening is the so called Radar Chart which graphically displays the present position of the company and its desired position in the forthcoming 3 to 5 years. ‘Based on this’, Šimunec explains, ‘the roadmap for implementation of digital transformation is designed’.
Incessant investments, transparency and other aspects feature 30 years of successful business operations, and are paramount to the company’s success, on even four markets. The application of digital technologies in Slovenia already started 15 years ago. Although Slovenia stood out for a long time, Croatia has overtaken the lead in the region after all.
‘The awareness that the State’s business policy cannot be based on tourism brought about developmental projects which are to help the industry invest in digital technologies. Particularly now, in times of the Coronavirus pandemic all benefits of remote working came out, also of systems not dependent on people who can stay at home and self-isolate as well as relating to the organization of resource efficient production.
However, the biggest investments from European companies have currently been made in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which offer great potential for the development and application of digital technology. Foreign companies simply copy their proven technology and seek out for local companies that can perform tasks in their native language, assemble the necessary manpower and are open to new challenges.
This is the reason why we conduct business in the territory of four countries, and recently operate with the office in Hungary’ our interviewee pointed out.
Although progress is vivid in all markets, the fear that comes with digital implementation is still present. The consciousness of workplaces reduction persists, but actually, the reality is by far different. The productivity growth driven from digital technology effects market competitiveness, eventually resulting in more jobs.
In order to understand these and other outcomes it is necessary to acquire adequate education. This is clear as daylight and that is exactly the direction CADCAM is pursuing, in collaboration with the Končar Group and Dassault Systemes, by founding a Digital Factory Lab which aims at raising knowledge from new technologies, and it may be pointed out that the accomplishment of the respective project is planned for May.
The basis is the 3DEXPERIENCE platform which is utilized by their biggest users such as Končar D&ST, Končar GIM and Končar KEV, further to these AD Plastik, RIMAC Automobili and many more.
Keeping young people in the country
‘The purpose of the Digital Factory Lab is to transfer new technologies to young generations and enable access to the latest software tools so that they may acquire knowledge which they will subsequently utilize in their parent companies. Education shall be organized, and by this, other companies will have the opportunity to experience these new program solutions and figure out, on the spot, all benefits of the new technologies.
The idea is to educate young generations and have them employed with Croatian companies on high value work, that Croatia becomes recognized by knowledge on new technologies, that young generations realize the meaning and the benefits of working in their own country and that brain drain be stopped.
By this the whole community and society would profit immensely and would give Croatia the opportunity to attract highly profitable investments and experts from all over the world’, Šimunec explained.
Celebrating 30 years of business the CADCAM Group team renewed by modernising their visual identity, and in this week they have launched their new website. It is focused on information about digital transformation understandable to all visitors, from managers to IT experts.
‘We have gathered our knowledge into solutions and given directions that individual companies are advised to follow or think in these terms’, Zlatko Šimunec, Director of CADCAM Group concluded.
Source: Poslovni Dnevnik