For an entrepreneur who dreams of innovation, the very first “intelligent factory” officially inaugurated this Thursday in Montreal is the equivalent of a candy store.
Robots equipped with visual recognition, modules that store, unload or transport boxes guided by artificial intelligence, sensors of all kinds, there are a total of twenty avant-garde technologies in a space of 836 square meters hidden in an industrial park. of the Borough of Saint-Laurent.
“What we are seeing today warms my heart,” said Pierre Fitzgibbon, Quebec Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy, at a press conference. It will clearly allow entrepreneurs to see how the technological innovations that will help accelerate digital transformation work. […] We have to innovate if we want to be even more productive. »
First combination
This project, which required investments of some 8 million from the consulting firm Deloitte Canada, in collaboration with some of the 20 companies exhibiting their devices there, is the fourth of its kind in the world, after those built in Germany, Japan and the United States.
It is also the first time that manufacturing and warehousing technologies have been combined.
The objective is to allow hundreds of essentially Quebec and Canadian entrepreneurs to come and discover, within the framework of tailor-made guided tours, the ultimate in technological innovations, sometimes futuristic, sometimes based on devices used for decades, but improved. In short, to boost the possibilities of the “intelligent factories” that we want to see multiply in the country.
“Never in the history of mankind have we had access to such sophisticated tools,” enthuses Geneviève Provost, Managing Partner for the Quebec and National Capital Region at Deloitte Canada. “Entrepreneurs won’t have to visit dozens of sites to see them in action. »
Manufacturers like Cisco, Cosme, E2 Solution, NuMove Robotics & Vision and Siemens have settled there. Deloitte has added an in-house technology, a camera system that allows the intelligent reception of products in the warehouse.
“In a context of economic uncertainty and labor shortages, smart factories are more important than ever,” commented during his speech Luc Rabouin, head of economic and commercial development on the executive committee of the City of Montreal and mayor of the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough.
According to an analysis published by Deloitte, by leveraging smart factory solutions, a company can increase its revenue by more than 42%. The systems presented at the Saint-Laurent pilot plant, which is not an actual production establishment with workers, are intended for a wide range of companies. The little ones can thus have access to a simple trolley worth $40,000 which can move from one box to another by reading barcodes and avoiding colliding with humans.
Towards “more rewarding” tasks
One of the most impressive modules presented during a guided tour at The Press is the one that is intended for the storage and collection of goods. On an aluminum structure, robots walk from one box to another to recover and place the crates on a conveyor, according to the orders of a human operator. This $3 million system, aimed at mid-sized businesses, eliminates almost two-thirds of the labor usually required for this activity, says Alan Taliaferro, partner at Deloitte Canada and leader of this smart factory project. “Expansion is inexpensive and the system saves space and efficiency,” he says.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
One of the most impressive modules presented during a guided tour at The Press is the one that is intended for the storage and collection of goods.
A few meters further on, in the heart of the exhibition hall, we find one of those good old robotic arms moving at breakneck speed. The novelty here is that a visual recognition system allows him to handle boxes of different sizes and arranged irregularly to place them on a conveyor.
“Basic equipment is not always very, very new, but we add the most recent innovations in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, visual recognition,” says Mr. Taliaferro. We thus replace the people who unload the trucks, who do the inventory, and who can be assigned to more rewarding tasks. »
More specifically, the smart factory in Montreal was designed around 8 categories of uses that are considered common to all factories. In particular, we monitor and manage manufacturing, analyze quality, synchronize activities, quantify energy consumption and demonstrate intelligent transportation solutions.