Statement by João Sobral, from SIRMAF

Name: João Sobral
Name of the company: SIRMAF, LDA
Business area: Conception and building of Special Machines
Position in the company: Engineering Manager
INESC TEC Centres with which the company collaborated: CESE – Centre for Enterprise Systems Engineering
Project managers (INESC TEC): António Correia Alves
Title of the project(s): PRODUTECH SIF Mobilising Programme – Solutions for the Industry of the Future; PPS5 – Desenvolvimento de ferramentas avançadas para o desenvolvimento de produtos e sistemas (in English PPS5 – Development of advanced tools for the development of products and systems)

1. What is your professional background with INESC TEC? (when did it start, how did it developed,…)

This is the first project that we’re developing with INESC TEC. It started within the PRODUTECH application and with the mutual interest in the development of methodologies and tools for the lifecycle management of products and factories.

2. Briefly describe the main projects you have carried out in collaboration with INESC TEC.

It’s a consortium project in which INESC TEC participates as a developer and SIRMAF as a demonstrator.

Within the framework of the project, the support Methodology to the lifecycle management of product and factory was developed throughout the entire value chain of the mechatronics industry (mechanics, electronics and software).

The development of the IT Platform of the lifecycle management of product and factory (xPLM – extended PLM) is under way, aligned with the Industry 4.0 paradigm, according to the principles defined in the methodology of the lifecycle management of product and factory, with the following groups of functions:

1. Management of the collaborative activities of the lifecycle of product and factory;
2. Management of the technical information of the product and the factory

3. What are the significant outcomes about these projects that you can highlight?

The most relevant result was the specification of the Platform of Lifecycle Management of product and factory, suitable for SMEs in the mechatronics sector and for the challenges of Industry 4.0. Namely in terms of the collaborative work, the connectivity, the digitalisation and the growing incidence of the conversion of products in their lifecycle.

4. What is your opinion on your experience working with INESC TEC?

While collaborating with INESC TEC, we valued the knowledge of the national industry based on the direct collaboration with the companies, the investment and the results in the research of topics related to Industry 4.0 and the professionalism in the organisation and planning of the project.

5. What is the possibility of future collaborations with INESC TEC?

We distinguish the R&D&I competences of INESC TEC in key areas of SIRMAF’s productive and product Innovation. Our perspective is that this project will be the first of many collaborations.