ANCORA adapts digital factories to the needs of the people who work in them.
ANCORA is a spin-off of the ATLANTTIC research centre of the University of Vigo. It is the result of a proof-of-concept programme, IGNICIA, for the promotion of technology transfer in Galician universities. From that programme we created the company in June 2019, and we have been growing in product, customers and team during these almost 4 years. We are now almost 20 people involved in the project, mainly in Spain, but also with a presence in Germany.
Its positioning in the manufacturing operations management (MOM) software market is to be a solution that complements the main management systems. This allows, on the one hand, to help companies to incorporate improvements to the digitalisation of the manufacturing plant without replacing the software with which they are managing their production, quality or maintenance processes. And on the other hand, to establish alliances with other MOM software manufacturers.
Why have you decided to support Mindtech in its third edition in 2023?
ANCORA participated in the 2019 and 2021 editions, with a very positive result in each of them. In the first edition, it allowed us to establish our first business contacts, just shortly after creating the company. And in 2021 it allowed us to launch and present to customers the initial versions of our digital assistant Ancora Worker Connect, and thus obtain very valuable feedback for us, and for the improvement of our product. So for us there was no doubt about betting on this third edition, in which we are sure that the new features we will show in our product will be of great interest to attendees and hopefully future customers of the company.
What is the added value for your company when participating in this fair?
Mindtech is a fair that brings together exhibitors and attendees from the world of manufacturing and industrial digitalisation. For ANCORA, this feature allows us to make important business contacts with potential customers, but also to establish partnerships. In addition, the existence of an area for startups offers us the necessary differentiation for emerging companies, so that our most innovative proposals have visibility.
What innovations will you be presenting at Mindtech 2023?
In this edition we will present the latest innovations that we have incorporated into our digital assistant Ancora Worker Connect. In particular, some of the most illustrative use cases of our multimodal concept, such as hands-free inspections and verifications, supported and guided by the conversational assistant, or the classification of hands-free rejects, in which we have cooperated with companies from the Vigo area and which we intend to show at the fair.
How do you face the recovery/reactivation in the current context of lack of raw materials, rising costs of supplies and energy, etc.?
By keeping calm, first and foremost. It has certainly affected us through our customers. When key operational issues require their full attention, it is more complicated to move forward with digitalisation processes. We have to understand that this is natural and that patience is necessary. However, the most relevant impact was in the first half of 2022.
What differential value do you think the metal industry and its associated technologies have in the Iberian Pole in particular?
The metal-mechanics and machine tool industries are key players across many “vertical” industrial sectors for which they are suppliers or key players. In fact, the value-adding capacity of these industries would be compromised without a strong and proximate metal industry capable of providing it. This has been seen in the recent supply crisis and it is key in the future to continue to have a solid, innovative and cutting-edge metal component manufacturing capacity in order to maintain the overall competitiveness of the Iberian industrial hub.