Welcome to our interview series with the partners running Better Factory. Today we are lucky to be joined by two of our all-star team, Serena Albertario and Konstantinos Grevenitis, to learn more about HOLONIX and their role in the project!
Serena Albertario has been a Logistics and Operation management Engineer at HOLONIX for the past 4+ years. She has a degree from Logistics and Operation Management from Politecnico di Milano.
Konstantinos Grevenitis is a IT solutions architect at HOLONIX. He is a .NET software engineer, with 11 years of experience, holding a master’s degree in computational methods and applications.
Thank you for joining us today! Please could you give us a short introduction to HOLONIX in your own words, providing ICT solutions for the manufacturing domain, and what is your role here?
HOLONIX was established as spin off company from Politecnico di Milano in 2010. Today it’s a completely independent company focused on innovation and specialized in ICT solutions for the manufacturing domain. It has great experience in European research projects (mainly in Horizon ones).
Additionally, it has extensive experience of industrial ICT implementations. HOLONIX mainly focuses on the Lifecycle Data and Knowledge Management and it is branded as “i-LiKe” (intelligent Lifecycle data and Knowledge) suite. The suit can collect datasets from smart devices and production environments and finally it aggregates them into formats that are the basis to create digital representations of the real world and enable decision making support systems. Moreover, the company is member of The Open Group, an association that provides open, vendor-neutral IT standards and certifications in a variety of subject areas critical to the enterprise.
Thank you! Could you tell us some more detail about your Sensing Layer?
Sensing Layer, is a software solution that its main functionality is gathering and aggregating data that are extracted from wearable devices (BLE protocol) and shop floor Iot devices, like sensors etc. It transforms those data to NGSI entities (NGSI v2 standard) that are an even more formalized version of JSON entities.
Finally, it pushes those formalized data to the FIWARE Orion Broker (use of HTTP communication protocol), or alternatively to MQTT brokers (use of MQTT protocol), but also receives notification by using again the HTTP or MQTT protocol.
HOLONIX will lead WP4, which is ‘Development and integration of APPS’. Could you give us an update on the progress, and how do you foresee the development for the remainder of the project?
Currently the KTEs are focusing in using RAMP and the APPs platform. They appreciate the project’s philosophy and the provided tools, and HOLONIX is doing his best to support them. Each KTE has requirements that we are trying to satisfy. Additionally, the technology providers have improved their providing tools a lot. It is not an easy process, but we have made many steps forward as a consortium and as a WP4 team.
How do you think Better Factory can positively affect the future of manufacturing industry in Europe as a whole, over the next 5-10 years?
Better Factory is going to offer a very good solution for the manufacturing industries in Europe. APPS will allow manufacturing SMEs to connect the factory devices and perform experiments with services on the RAMP Marketplace, requiring no infrastructure change, no production downtime and no in‐house expertise. This will make their investment in digital technologies extremely cost effective and risk free. It also drastically simplifies the entry of technology provider SMEs and start‐ups into the digitization value‐chain. The business model of small technology suppliers allows the development and delivery of highly customized, one of a kind and tailored solutions for individual SMEs as micro‐services. The objective is reached thanks to a cooperative network of services deployed to suit the needs of the SMEs. Different stakeholders participate with their expertise in a harmonized way, leveraging on the same underlying structure and collaborating with each other to achieve a shared goal.
No doubt there will be some readers that are keen to meet you to talk more about the project and your role in it. Which events can people find you at in 2022, and beyond?
Better Factory will be at lots of events this year – keep an eye on our Insights section (blog), and social media. in June for example the project will be at ERF2022 (European Robotics Forum).
If you’d like to learn more about our partners or KTEs, just head back to the Insights section to read more interviews!
