11.05.2017 Views

AsseMec120_MAGGIU_2017

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

NEWS<br />

Associazione<br />

Italiana di<br />

Automazione<br />

Meccatronica<br />

Alessandro Torsoli<br />

manterrà il ruolo<br />

di Past President<br />

all’interno<br />

dell’associazione.<br />

Alessandro Torsoli<br />

will keep the role<br />

of Past President<br />

within the<br />

association.<br />

We opened two representative offices abroad, one<br />

in Serbia and one in the Czech Republic, and on this<br />

path we aim to keep on supporting more and more<br />

our companies, especially the smaller ones, in their<br />

internationalization path. We have also arranged<br />

several collective stands at major exhibitions, always<br />

with the aim of supporting our member companies<br />

looking for new business opportunities or introducing<br />

their production capacity and products.<br />

We have established partnerships with major universities<br />

and research centres and, speaking of education, we<br />

have created our AIdAM Academy brand.<br />

jobs - to increase productivity deals with greater system<br />

efficiency. The latter can only be achieved by investing in<br />

new processes and technologies, work organization and<br />

training.<br />

Could you try to take stock of your double term as<br />

president of AIdAM?<br />

In such a difficult time, as we said, we basically kept the<br />

number of member companies (there were 68 at the<br />

end of 2010 and 64 at the end of 2016). We managed to<br />

bring new colleagues to our world and we are definitely<br />

satisfied with this. The association budget increased from<br />

around €130,000 in 2010 to about €260,000 in 2016 and for<br />

this I have to thank the member companies for their effort<br />

in following us on this major financial commitment.<br />

We changed our name from AIdA to AIdAM in order to<br />

follow the rapid technological changes in our industry. We<br />

have also increased our operating structure to support the<br />

activities carried out by our Director Massimo Vacchini.<br />

And then there are the several initiatives promoted<br />

abroad...<br />

In this regard, which of these initiatives<br />

are you most proud of?<br />

In the last three years we have organized more than<br />

20 missions abroad. I am talking about meetings, often<br />

resulted in collaboration agreements, in Albania, Serbia,<br />

Tunisia, Morocco, Portugal, Iran, Turkey, Oman, India,<br />

Mexico, France, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovenia,<br />

Great Britain and Bulgaria.<br />

What are, however, the initiatives or projects on which<br />

AIdAM has put a lot of efforts that might have had a<br />

better end?<br />

We have been in contact several times with EFAC to try<br />

to arrange, as we had intended to do, the International<br />

Conference in Italy in <strong>2017</strong>, and we were on the verge<br />

of closing the agreement. Unfortunately, we realized<br />

that the whole organization would have fallen squarely<br />

on our shoulders, with little support from other nations<br />

and, albeit reluctantly, we had to give up.<br />

This is, however, an important issue for AIdAM. If I can<br />

make a suggestion to the next Executive Board, I report<br />

the possibility to arrange independently an International<br />

Conference aimed at emphasizing the importance of<br />

our association in the field of Factory Automation.<br />

A concern I have deals with collaborative aggregations:<br />

I believe that this issue will be of primary importance for<br />

the next President and the next Executive Board.<br />

Much has been done, much remains to be done,<br />

I guess...<br />

In 1999, when AIdA was born, people used<br />

to misunderstand our name, referring to us as<br />

manufacturers of gates automation. Today, our<br />

representatives take part in government tables to<br />

discuss about Industry 4.0, and this is a success to be<br />

shared with all members and be really proud of.<br />

Leading an association is a source of responsibility but<br />

also a great honor.<br />

We must be proud of what we have built in nearly 20<br />

years, of who we are as a country, as companies, as<br />

people.To my colleagues I say: do not be ashamed of<br />

being small in the presence of giants you will encounter<br />

in the world, be open and aware of our strength,<br />

especially when we work together.<br />

Courage. Honesty. Expertise. Pride. Passion. These<br />

are the words to be always associated to our work<br />

as members of AIdAM: this is the baton that we have<br />

received, carried in the last 6 years and now pass to the<br />

next Executive Board.<br />

n<br />

58 MAGGIO-GIUGNO <strong>2017</strong> 120

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!