AS.MA.VE, Veronese Marble Consortium, and Maxfone, a leader in big data analytics and the development of artificial intelligence solutions, form a partnership to drive the digital transition in the natural stone industry.
In the wake of Industry 4.0, manufacturing is amid technological modernisation. And the central element that will guide companies into an increasingly complex future where, in addition to competitive factors, companies must also consider energy costs, efficiency and sustainability is digital transformation.
Among the companies heavily affected by this transformation are stone and marble processing companies due to the high energy and water consumption required both during stone cutting and in the subsequent stages, such as polishing and honing.
Natural stone processing is one of the oldest production activities in the world but is essential for the country’s economy. According to data from the Italian Marmomacchine Association, in the first half of 2022 alone, products worth 1,565 million euros were exported. Growing numbers despite global crises.
To efficiently meet these demands, considering the rising energy costs, AS.MA.VE has agreed with the data provider Maxfone to provide its members with facilitated access to solutions for the collection and analysis of consumption data of production processes to fulfil the digital transformation envisaged by Industry 4.0 and to have greater control of resource costs (e.g. energy, materials).
“The cost of energy has always been one of the primary items for us marble workers when calculating the cost of production. In the 1980s, with the first personal computers, I created a programme to achieve this, a job that took hours and hours of my spare time. Knowing that today, just by pressing a button, you can know in real-time the costs for each production line makes me think how much technology can help the entrepreneur”, reiterated Donato Larizza, President of AS.MA.VE.
On the path that led to the partnership, Paolo Errico, Managing Director of Maxfone, says: “We approached this market by identifying ourselves with the needs of entrepreneurs, which can be summed up in three objectives: to have the costs of each process and job under control thanks to machines 4.0 (and not) analysed in real-time; to use artificial intelligence (AI) to optimise processing routines based on electricity and water consumption, to switch on plants at times when energy is cheaper or when it is produced by photovoltaic panels; and finally, to monitor through specific IoT sensors all other inefficiencies, such as compressed air leaks.” And the results were not long in coming: “The response from businesses has been incredible. We have customers (many of which are AS.MA.VE members) who are now able to manage dynamic price lists in real-time precisely thanks to cost analysis, making processes more efficient with a different awareness: that of data, the true spirit of Actions 4.0.”
The adoption of the data-driven philosophy will not only bring benefits in cost optimisation, which is fundamental to the very life of companies. Being more efficient is the only possible way to tackle another considerable challenge: sustainability.
