The manufacturing industry is in a state of information armageddon. Be it about production recording, management, costs, energy, networks, machinery of any kind and make, or even vendors; companies have to rely on the available data to create an efficient smart factory. That’s where SBIA can help as it puts all that under control and efficient management. Following is the conversation that Manufacturing Technology Insights Europe’s editorial team had with Mr. Stamatiou Evangelos, the General Manager of SBIA, to understand the company’s specialization in PLC/SCADA/HMI and industrial automation, production improvement, building management and analytics systems, and software development.

What led to the genesis of SBIA? Please give us a snapshot of the company’s journey.

At the time of SBIA’s inception, there weren’t so many technology companies to assist manufacturers with the expertise of high-level PLC programmers and system analysts. Early in my career, I’ve witnessed the need for the highest level of technical services and know-how to program PLCs and software development. I founded SBIA to fill this gap. Before that, I choose to spend time in the production field as a technician to get firsthand the field experience that many of my colleagues miss. I pushed myself to absorb as much information and knowledge I could about my profession. With SBIA, I intend to bring the utmost value to our clients. As stated in our quality policy document—“No economic cost can be simulated with the value of our customers’ satisfaction.’

Talk to us in-depth about how SBIA stands out in designing smart systems that can be innovatively applied across industries of all types. Please provide us with information on the Total Factory Services offered by the firm.

Total Factory Services was developed to fulfill the need for easier and efficient management of any facility by a single provider. We become our clients’ single source from facility management, power distribution and AHUs control, toaddressing problems, maintenance, documentation, studies, up to certified processes, collecting information and efficient management. Unlike other companies that focus on how to master a product or a process, SBIA masters industrial management via automation as a whole. Regardless of the type of products and tools in use, we know how to apply automation that adheres to international standards. We work closely with our clients’ people to get all the relevant information that we’d need to streamline automation.

Automation is also about having everything communicating with each other and report to supervisors. Even if mastering how to perform that, the interconnection can be proven quite a challenge. Lifelong learning is the key.

Could you elaborate on the significant expertise and services of SBIA in industrial automation? Would you please shed some light on how SBIA builds future-proof systems?

In SBIA, we build innovative tools and industrial automation systems.

We make them standardised to modern standards as GMP, but most importantly, they are tuned to future requirements. For example, sew and unpick are time-consuming and costly situations that hold back an organisation from its goals. When we design a system, we do that with 10 to 15 years requirements in mind.

Another example is that it requires no extra cost to build a system capable of communicating and transmitting data to third-parties or future control rooms. We choose the material carefully and enable all the major trends in the modern industry. Speaking of control rooms, that is another one of SBIA’s expertise.

How has the company helped its clients overcome challenges and attain successful outcomes? Would you please give an example?

One of our top-line products, relative to smart factory subjects, is the WS-AS (WorkStation Analysis System). It was developed almost ten years ago for a prominent pharmaceutical manufacturer in Greece. If fulfils the need for efficient production management, problem reporting, analytics and predicting production losses. It provides advanced tools for analysing and reporting 31 different variables of every monitored workstation and it can be implemented in any machine regardless make, vendor or technology.

Smart solutions for the modern industry

It provides colour-coded visuals for easy recognition, live data, and trends and does not rely to human input. This allowed us to present every possible information drawn from a machine entered into the organisation’s ERP software as accurate field data. It also included reduction prediction and advanced analytics up to cost per product unit combined in a multi-tool system, custom-built on the Simaticplatform. “Can’t live without tool,” was the management statement about the WSAS system. Its simplicity is the key that stands out.

Please give us a glimpse of the company culture and the team. What role do they play in SBIA’s continued success?

I was fortunate to meet my colleagues during my professional career. We have been co-working with some of them for a long time and with some recently. All of them have one in common. They are the best at what they do. We have a common understanding in terms of business, progressive mindset, and we all share the same vision.

SBIA, in the early years, was often subcontractor to companies that had no understanding of technology or the distribution of the information or the concept of the production field. I decided that we’d waste no time by spending endless hours in meetings trying to explain. In the following years, I worked towards this target to put together a team that would be capable of all this but, most importantly, would be able to acknowledge and recognise my vision and effort. And it paid off.

Looking ahead, where do you see SBIA? What does the future hold for the firm?

Despite the new and challenging global situation, we have managed to keep our growth rate and include two new big clients in our portfolio last year. Also, we have managed to progress with our open projects during quarantine without side effects or significant delays. We are dedicated and work methodically towards a single and particular target, and that is no other than rising to an EU-wide player and broader recognition among the top. We are convinced that we will achieve that, not only because we devoted time to improve ourselves or our products, or because we invested in R&D during the early years, but mostly because we can.