Poslovni dnevnik has launched the Smart Industry 2020 project, which aims to raise awareness about the importance of the smart industry topic in Croatia. We are proud that Codel is also participating in the project and contributing to the sustainable development of the Croatian economy with its expertise and smart solutions.
Codel was featured on the Poslovni.hr portal, where our Marijan Sever was interviewed, and whose article we are reprinting in full:
With their solutions, they successfully integrate business systems with the machines themselves.
They are currently working on developing a system that will be able to label almost any product regardless of its weight, packaging, or shape.
The Zagreb-based company Codel has been designing and manufacturing systems for manufacturing and industry for over 28 years. Their solutions connect business systems with the machines themselves, and their main focus is on vertical and horizontal integrations in manufacturing according to Industry 4.0 standards. Currently, their team consists of 16 employees and several external collaborators, and they plan to hire new ones.
“We create unique solutions tailored to each user, according to their specific requirements and needs. We offer our clients complete end-to-end solutions, and our systems incorporate many years of experience in the fields of IT, design, communications, integration, and automation.”
“We adapt our systems daily to global trends and new technologies. Our flagship solution, AIDA – the Total Production Management platform, includes numerous modules, is tailored to each client, and is scalable, meaning it can operate with the same quality in smaller plants as well as in large factories”, emphasize the people at Codel.
Breakthrough into foreign markets
The main clients for which the AIDA solution has been implemented, either in its entirety or with selected modules, are BAT/TDR, Enikon Aerospace, and Franck. Among more recent projects, the company worked on a product re-packing line for the EU market for client BAT/Lagermax, where they designed, built, and implemented the entire production line.
“The project ran for several years and includes 100 percent traceability in accordance with the EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD). Codel’s printer applicators print labels on three levels of packaging, and Codel’s system generates unique serial numbers and the labels themselves in real time, which are applied across all production lines.
Codel’s AIDA Total Production Management system has also been integrated with BAT/TDR’s SAP ERP system,” Codel explained.
Codel also has a subsidiary in the United Kingdom, and in addition to the countries of the region, it is focusing on the German and Austrian markets. Of the new markets it is planning to break into, it is targeting the rest of the EU as well as the US and Canada.
As they point out, their IoT applications are applicable in all manufacturing industries, with an emphasis on those where it is extremely important to track traceability, quality, efficiency, material consumption per production order, comply with standards and norms, and have real-time insight into the manufacturing process itself, as well as logistics and the supply chain.
“Every day, the need is growing in the manufacturing world for both the automation of production processes and for aligning production itself with the principles of Industry 4.0. This includes collecting actual data in real time, integrating various systems and production processes both vertically and horizontally, all to make the highest-quality decisions and changes within the process itself, based on accurate data with the goal of the highest-quality and most efficient production,” notes Codel.
New opportunities
The company also has many years of experience in manufacturing special industrial printers, marking systems, and related equipment and software. The challenge they face every day is how to manufacture and implement an industrial system that can label almost any product regardless of its weight, packaging, or shape, so they have launched an innovation project. Depending on the phase, all Codel employees and Codel’s external partners will be involved to a certain extent.
“Today, in fully automated industries, labeling tasks for specific products are still partially performed manually, requiring a lot of human labor that is often imprecise and inaccurate.
This causes significant costs and difficulties, and this innovation provides the solution in that area. The project’s goal is the commercialization of the innovation called AIDA-MAIDEN, which represents a universal tagging system. Expectations are high, and we believe that the outcome of this project will be a product that will be globally attractive to potential clients, in line with Industry 4.0 trends in manufacturing and logistics,” explain the people at Codel.
A challenging and successful year
The company is also known for collaborating with the academic community for the past two years on artificial intelligence and new models for monitoring and managing production processes. “Associate Professor Dr. Lavoslav Čaklović has been a Codel external collaborator for several years, and with Professor Čaklović we are working on the applications of his Potential Method in Codel’s solutions for the manufacturing industry, robotics, and logistics,” Codel emphasizes. In business terms, this year was marked by the company being one of one hundred to sign a project financing agreement based on the “Innovations in S3 Areas” call, which aims to encourage the commercialization of product innovations/ services in accordance with the priority thematic areas and cross-sectoral themes identified in the Smart Specialization Strategy (S3). In addition, this year was marked for them by investing in new employees and technologies, specifically robotics.
“The Corona crisis had a major impact on business, and we are proud that during it we successfully completed a very challenging repacking line project for BAT/Lagermax. Given that we have clients within the aviation industry supply chain, which has been hit very hard by this global crisis, this has affected us in that certain agreed-upon projects have been put on hold.
But on the other hand, we were able to prepare thoroughly for the S3 project. We’re proud that in these challenging times we not only didn’t lay off any employees, but actually hired new ones,” the Zagreb-based company concludes.