As part of the EIT Manufacturing Hub for Croatia, whose goal is to connect manufacturing companies with innovative teams of students and encourage open innovation in the manufacturing industry through education, JGL has gained an automation solution for exchanging settling plates in monitoring processes.
“We approached the Manufacturing Innovation Challenge (MIC) project with the aim of finding an innovative alternative to the manual method of exchanging settling plates currently employed by many pharmaceutical companies. We didn’t have to wait long, as the SimpleMatic start-up team, consisting of Daniela Jakšić and Marko Brkljačić, designed it in just a few weeks, thereby winning first prize. The solution is a major step forward and clearly illustrates the thin line between a problem and a solution,” says Mate Poropat, Director of Pharmaceutical and Technical Operations at JGL, adding that although JGL’s case was highly specific to the pharmaceutical industry, a total of nine start-ups competed for the prize. Poropat thanked the winners during the award ceremony and encouraged them to implement and develop the innovation globally.
The EIT Manufacturing Hub is one of ten hubs in Europe whose goal is to establish a network of European innovators in manufacturing and to position Europe as a global leader in industrial innovation. In Croatia, it consists of the Centre for Research, Development and Technology Transfer at the University of Zagreb and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture (FSB). This is the second time JGL has participated in the competition.
“One of the key problems in start-ups is that they create products that aren’t fit for the market, while manufacturing companies face real problems for which they need solutions. It, therefore, makes sense to bring them together,” says Miro Hegedić, EIT Manufacturing Hub coordinator and assistant professor at FSB. The winners were awarded HRK 10,000.00.