We had the opportunity to learn about the latest developments in industrial digitalisation in a highly topical and interactive presentation.

It was clear from the very first presentation that the topic was of great interest to a wide range of participants, including representatives from drone technology, marketing communications, manufacturing services, educational technology, sales of production simulation tools, automotive clusters and the printing industry.

László Kovács, Head of the Technology Centre, introduced the audience to the world of industrial digitalisation in a very accessible way. It was particularly interesting to hear that the key to a company's success lies at least 50% in the quality of its management - not only in technology.

The main mission of the Centre is to combine academic knowledge and market experience to help Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to compete in global markets - with the tools of digitalisation. The Centre was set up as part of the GINOP 1.1.3 Industry 4.0 Flagship Project ‘Model Factories’, which improved a development plan for 134 companies.

The methodology used in the project has been the basis for SME development ever since, providing the comprehensive approach - with training, mindset-shaping workshops, detailed operational mapping and development plans - that is essential for effective operational transformation.

The experience following the completion of the project has been that, although a high proportion of companies start digitisation, they often do not follow through. To address this problem, the Digital Coach role was created - in collaboration with Ruhr University Bochum and other international partners. The role of the Digital Coach is to ensure continuity of development and help companies to get past critical points and prevent backsliding.

The Data-EDIH project, which is currently underway, has already launched the first Digital Coach training course, which will prepare participants specifically for this role.

The presentation emphasised that if we digitise the wrong processes, we often do more harm than if we do nothing. This is why the LEAN approach plays a key role in the digitisation process. An inefficient process should first be improved and only then should it be digitised. Indeed, digitisation is based on a rule-based, system-driven operation in which the freedom of choice at the implementation level is significantly reduced. It is therefore particularly important to ensure that processes work well before digitisation - a classic LEAN exercise.

Experience has shown that companies often start with technology investment (‘the iron’), as confirmed by the results of a previous study. According to the survey, the breakdown of SMEs' development plans is as follows:

• 40% prioritise the acquisition of new technology,
• 30% aim to introduce IT systems,
• 52% aim to make better use of existing capacity.

This phenomenon justifies why the Technology Centre's development methodology always starts with mindset shaping. New tools and increased capacity are only justified when current operations can no longer be optimised. This should be the starting point!

In the second half of the event, experts László Kovács and László Katona guided the participants through the Technology Centre, where we were able to see more and more exciting equipment and solutions in operation.

At the end of the visit, several people expressed interest in further cooperation with the Centre. The BME Industry 4.0 Technology Centre is still open to applications from SMEs who would like to test the developed Industry 4.0 solutions in a real environment.