Two major international exhibitions reached completion in Milan: MICAM Milano and SIMAC Tanning Tech, which took place on September 19-24, 2021.
“Each day our stand was visited by dozens of interested company representatives. The meetings with strategic partners and VIP clients were held in a comfortable atmosphere. At the end of the exhibitions, we received a lot of useful feedback and suggestions on our products and services; hundreds of new potential clients interested in the company’s solutions ”- this is not a complete summary of the last MICAM + SIMAC week for ICOL Group, according to Andrey Golub, General Director – ICOL Italia.
ПThe presentation of the Digital Directory of Fashion Industry Companies became the main focus at the MICAM Milano exhibition as part of the ICOL Fashion Ecosystem project. Each exhibitor and visitor of the exhibition had the opportunity to become part of a new digital ecosystem designed to unite all professional market participants, from designers, technicians and component suppliers to product manufacturers and retailers.
Benefits of the digital platform:
- comfortable work with the system from anywhere in the world; the ability to have at your disposal all orders, collections, wherever you are – in the office, at home or on the road;
- using a secure cloud space to work with goods, orders, customers;
- reduction of time for creation and approval of orders;
- saving on promoting your brand in the international market, since visitors to international events are 100% target audience.
«“I am very pleased with the results of both exhibitions held in Milan! I believe that we managed to convey both to the existing partners and to many new potential ones, the unique opportunities that cooperation with the ICOL Group presents. Whether it’s digital platforms for managing a fashion business, or technology projects in Industry 4.0 and robotic manufacturing, our solutions successfully help fashion companies retain, consolidate and grow their leadership. ” – said Andrey Golub.
Despite the fears of the expert community related to the difficult epidemiological situation and the general decline in business activity, participants and visitors to both events showed noticeable enthusiasm. A lively atmosphere reigned at the exhibitions. SIMAC 2021 was attended by over 5,000 companies, exhibitors and visitors from more than 50 countries, which indicates a return to pre-Covid activity in the industry. The main topic of discussions and requests of specialists is solutions towards Industry 4.0: smart systems, smart machines, smart processes.
Within the framework of the past exhibitions in Milan, ICOL presented its main business lines:
- Fashion Ecosystem – the company’s own development, created to unite all participants of the fashion industry: from designers, technical specialists and components’ suppliers to manufacturers and retailers.
- Digital B2B Platform – multipurpose digital platform, called to optimize trading and procurement activities of various industrial entities, goods lifecycle management, efficiency of business and marketing processes.
- Smart Footwear Factory – a new scenario for manufacturing of the future, where each production stage is set as the autonomous robotized area, while interaction of area is fully optimized and automated.
- Smart Cutting Center – a robotized center with the following processing stations: defect detection and application of transportation films, marking, printing, laser stamping, edge skiving, reinforcing, cutting and picking.
The pilot project of Smart Cutting Center was successfully launched at Belwest, a Belarus major footwear manufacturer. Six months of operations resulted in 24% lower costs, with assortment doubled. From the very first month of operations, growth of production volume indicated a 15-20% increase.
ICOL Group is currently in the process of creating two own cutting centers for yet better provision of services:
- ICOL BY Cutting Center (Minsk, Belarus) – at the deployment stage. Start of commercial operations is set for early 2022.
- ICOL ESP Cutting Center (Barcelona, Spain) – at the construction stage. Start of commercial operations is set for late 2022.
- Similar project for Italy is at its planning stage.
ICOL is interested in strategic partners and major clients to develop the provision of services of its cutting business. Representatives of the company are ready to discuss the special cooperation conditions.
- ICOL MES System – The intellectual core of manufacturing management, solving the tasks of production output’s synchronization, analysis and optimization. MES of Smart Factory is capable of independent (with no human involvement) decision making – yet providing the most complete information on the current state of a robotized production line, all its components and aspects; allowing, if necessary, an operator to interrupt, to correct and to renew the production.
Having high flexibility and instant reaction to changes, MES allows the most efficient operation of equipment, lowering the expenses and increasing labor productivity.
- VQI (Visual Quality Inspection) – part of ICOL.SmartFactory solution, designed to automatically analyze surface of leather hides, product components and ready shoes and accessories; to detect, localize and classify defects and anomalies; to optimize layouts for cutting, to perform other related operations.
- Smart Warehouse – full robotization of operations, from arrival at a warehouse and operational storage to sorting and shipping, due to use of the independently developed FRLS (Full Robotics Logistic Space) system of logistic operations management.
- Digital Solutions – other solutions and services from ICOL, based on Industry 4.0 guidelines: Advanced Machine Vision, Deep Learning/AI, Digital Twin, AMR – autonomous mobile robots and Industrial IoT.
ICOL is a international group of companies with its headquarters in Barcelona, Spain. It emerged in 2019 over LACIT (Laboratory of Digital Technologies) company that has operated since 2017 in the sphere of innovations and technologies and is the resident of Belarus High-Tech Park since 2018.
ICOL Group was initially founded as an international innovative business, where subdivisions and branches are responsible for their own development projects in the framework of general programs on manufacturing and technologies. The Italian branch consisting of Sales and R&D Departments opened in 2020 in Milan. Apart from commercial activity in Europe, the branch is also dealing with AI and Machine Vision development.
As of today, ICOL Group operates six development centers and commercial offices in four countries (Spain, Italy, Belarus, Russia). The total quantity of staff engineers exceeds 300 people.