Beyond Borders: Delivering Global Smart Manufacturing Insights

When my SME Media colleagues and I started this magazine in 2016, I committed to guiding Smart Manufacturing as a borderless publication because manufacturing is a global industry.

Ahead of the pandemic, we traveled to all corners of the United States, as well as to Austria, China, France and Germany—in some cases, multiple times.

We continuously interview industry leaders from around the world—on the phone and via virtual roundtables. But there’s nothing like in-person interviews. So, in this issue, contributing editor Lucila Dana Smith and I deliver four profiles of Argentine companies taking up the smart manufacturing challenge.

Dana Smith is on the ground in South America.

The first company profile recounts Sinteplast’s reliance on robotics to maintain its growth trajectory. The maker of paint and other coatings finished building its high-bay warehouse just before the pandemic hit. The $24 million investment doubled the warehouse’s distribution capacity.

The second company profile takes a look at QMAX Renewable Energies, which is mastering automation and the Internet of Things (IoT) to help fire up the move to renewable energy.

The third Argentine company profile witnesses Conextube’s switch to “smart production” to stay in the market. It has invested $2.7 million to increase plant capacity and logistics and implement a manufacturing execution system.

The fourth company profile from Argentina tells the story of a company that is out to simplify and lower the cost of implementing the IoT: ITPort developed hardware and software and calls the combination  Weeot. Importantly, Weeot requires no technical skills or dedicated resources to use. It displays processes in real-time—enabling manufacturers to avoid negative events.

We trust you will learn something valuable from our latest reporting effort abroad.