AsseMec120_MAGGIU_2017
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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