The third edition of the “Industry 4.0 in Practice” event, held on the occasion of announcing the Industry 4.0 Award by the National Centre for Industry 4.0 and the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic, once again confirmed that Czech companies across sectors face very similar challenges. At the same time, they are delivering solutions with a real impact on production, productivity, and the working environment.
During the full-day program, presentations were given by companies from the chemical industry, foundries, metalworking, automotive, system integrators, and innovative startups. The program opened with a discussion by the award jury on what truly determines the success of innovation in companies. The panel featured Jiří Holoubek, Robert Keil, Karel Mayer, and Ronald Blašek. The panelists emphasized that the awarded projects were not just “nice presentations” but demonstrably deliver measurable added value. They also largely agreed on three core pillars of innovation:
- Leadership – the courage of management to embrace change.
- Data – without data, innovation cannot be managed or decisions made properly.
- Collaboration with universities – expert support and fast access to new technologies.
Companies across sectors face the same problems: people, production accuracy, and pressure on efficiency
A common denominator of almost all presented projects is the shortage of both skilled specialists and shop-floor workers. Companies across industries are therefore looking for ways to keep production:
- error-free,
- on time,
- stable even with smaller teams.
This theme appeared repeatedly in foundries, chemical production, metalworking, and automotive. Innovation is what helps bridge this gap.
From thirty hours of grinding to a robotic process: a clear example of real impact
One of the most striking examples was a robotic grinding project for castings at ŽĎAS. In a plant where manual processing of a single piece previously took up to 30 hours, a robotic solution was implemented that:
- reduced the robotic part of the process to 5 hours,
- left only 2 hours of final manual finishing for a human operator,
- allowed production to move from three shifts to two while still meeting demand.
“We simply can’t ask people to do this anymore,” said Petr Kulhavý from the integrator Deprag, referring to multiple shifts of workers assigned to a single casting. The comment captures the fact that innovation is not only about productivity, but also about ergonomics and working conditions.
Data changes everything: from solving the first problem to strategic production management
Many of the awarded solutions are built on the introduction of data collection and data-driven management, whether through MES systems, plug-and-play sensors, or advanced analytics.
A key insight shared by the companies was that solving the initial problem is only the beginning of innovation. Once a company has accurate and reliable data in one place, it opens the door to further projects such as predictive maintenance, shift and planning optimization, digital twins, the use of artificial intelligence for example in acoustic machine diagnostics, automated quality control, or energy optimization.
The conference showed that Czech industry can be bold, creative, and highly practical
The goal of the event was to present real projects that work in practice—and that goal was achieved. The program demonstrated that Czech industry has:
- the courage to try new things,
- tangible results,
- clear proof that innovation makes sense,
- and a willingness to share experience across sectors.
