Magazine: Robots are the new steam engines: industrial revolution reloaded

By: Trademagazin editor Date: 2018. 01. 29. 07:41

We are living in the age of the fourth industrial revolution and this will result in major changes in the FMCG market as well. According to Balázs Tordai, head of Industry 4.0 at the Hungarian Association of IT Companies (IVSZ), changes have reached the food sector. Food industry manufacturers are open to modernisation, but there is still room for development in this respect, for instance retail chains require electronic data interchange from suppliers when placing orders, but data sharing is done at few places in the opposite direction – only a small portion of suppliers receive information automatically when product stocks in stores run low.

_{Balázs Tordai}
_{head of Industry 4.0}
_{Hungarian Association of IT Companies (IVSZ)}

_{Mihály Szabó}
_{head of business area}
_ABB

Mihály Szabó, ABB Kft.’s head of food industry business area told that trends and market expectations are going in the direction of replacing human workforce with machines. Most companies suffer from a workforce shortage and automation can be a solution to this problem. Mr Tordai revealed the virtual reality solutions on mobile phones can help in fixing errors for those workers who do maintenance and repair. If such problems are solved faster, less time is lost from production.

Dávid Szabó, CEO of Szintézis Zrt. spoke about the trend of moving business management and trading systems into the cloud. Cloud computing solutions offer transparency, flexibility, cost-efficiency and security, plus they provide continuous accessibility to managers. Szintézis software are available for use from the cloud (SZINTCloud) to SMEs. Mr Szabó informed that ABB’s solutions integrate existing and new production units into the given company’s business management system, by this making it easier and faster to make business decisions. During operation a large quantity of information is generated, which needs to be processed and presented in a way that the company’s management can define development directions and intervene in processes if necessary.

_{Dávid Szabó}
_CEO
_Szintézis

_{István Bessenyei}
_{owner and managing director}
_Laurel

Store sales can also be supported and optimised with several digital devices, in order to save time and increase the shopping experience. István Bessenyei, owner and managing director of Laurel Számítástechnikai Kft. explained that serving shoppers fast is a great competitive advantage for a retailer. The company’s Laura cash register software makes rapid shopping possible; what is more, a display is attached to it, on which customers can follow the process and watch advertisements or promotional offers. Mr Szabó spoke to our magazine about the Pricer electronic shelf label. These are flashing when a product is in promotion and display extra information about the product. It is needless to say how much time can be saved by store staff not having to indicate price changes manually. Sándor Bagdi, managing director of UCS RKeepeR Rendszerház told our magazine that this year they had developed a system for fast food restaurants which can increase basket size by 10-15 percent per purchase – having placed their orders, cross-promotional offers are made to customers on a display.

_{Sándor Bagdi}
_{managing director}
_{UCS RKeepeR Rendszerház}

Mr Szabó spoke about how a modern business management system can indicate the raw material, energy and workforce that is needed to make a product per unit. Mr Bessenyei’s experience is that stores which are open to using new technologies are much more successful, and those who introduce innovations when everyone else is already using them are constantly lagging behind. Mr Bagdi concluded that following the latest IT trends is a must for small businesses too in the hospitality sector. //