Challenges and plans for the future

The annual assembly of the association that has been gathering together the Italian specialists in mechatronic automation for 20 years, was held on April 11 at the AIdAM headquarters in Cinisello Balsamo. President Michele Viscardi updated the member companies on the initiatives carried out during the last year and talked about the projects for the near future. A future that, in the face of the growth trend that has affected Italian manufacturing in recent years, is expected to be uncertain due to a substantial weakness of the sector.
“Thanks to the close relations with the Smart Factory Cluster – said president Viscardi – AIdAM is acquiring a primary role indeed. Moreover, the relaunch of the IMVG (Italian Machine Vision Group, ed) and the partnerships we are trying to promote will allow us, already this year, to carve out a leading role in this sector”.
Viscardi has also dwelt on the close relationships over the past few years with the ministries, and especially with the MIUR (the Italian Ministry of University and Research), which have allowed the association to sign an agreement for a joint project that has as its main purpose the “creation” of the future Industrial Automation Technician. “We started from a careful analysis of the scenarios and needs of our industry – said AIdAM president – and then move on to the definition of technical skills and soft skills that the new professional figure must have. All this has been done by promoting a close collaboration between the companies, the ministry and some technical schools”. The participation in relevant fairs such as SPS Italia and Didacta, during this year, will also boost the project dealing with training activities for teachers.
As for internationalisation, on the other hand, “the interests and objectives related to some single nations have been better defined, excluding some of them that are of little interest and including others that are more attractive, such as Poland, for example”, said Michele Viscardi. The other “hot” countries, where projects or cooperation platforms are on the go, are Serbia, Czech Republic, Tunisia and Romania, so far.

Three new brands
Marketing, communication and promotion activities are still key issues for an association like AIdAM.
During the assembly, President Viscardi announced some changes in these areas.
“With the aim of sharing our work better, because the ongoing projects are mainfold and require greater commitment and dedication, we have created the following brands: AIdAM Academy, AIdAM Education and – new proposal – AIdAM 4Future, which could encompass all that is related to innovation. Each brand will be associated with logic of disclosure, such as the use of colours or hashtags”.
With regard to Education, a Group has been created within AIdAM aimed at members who have, in their companies, a division devoted to school education. Seven companies are involved to date.