Once perceived as the factory of the future, where everything is interconnected to create a web of information, the smart factory is now a reality. It is a paradise of efficiency where defect and downtime, waste and waiting are long forgotten issues. In the smart factory of today, intelligent analytics, robotics, big data, and the internet of things (IoT) are being leveraged to collaborate with each other and with a global team of savvy workers. This perfect integration of high-tech tools and workers represents the pinnacle of technological and manufacturing development. Carving out a niche in the high-mix, low-volume production market with its smart factory is a leading Polish electronic manufacturing services (EMS) provider—Fideltronik. With over three decades of experience in industrial electronics, the company helps clients reduce production costs and speed up time-to-market through its smart factory that combines advanced technology with AI and analytics to create an innovative and flexible ecosystem for highly demanding projects.

At the heart of Fideltronik’s smart factory is a sophisticated technology that can collect, analyze and utilize data to optimize processes across the manufacturing ecosystem, improving efficiency, flexibility, and safety. “Drawing from our experience in the areas of Industrial Automation, IoM and AI, we build machines and systems that fully correspond to Industry 4.0 principles,” says Lukas Wiecek, VP of Business Development, Fideltronik. The company strongly allies with Industry 4.0’s principles of technical assistance, interconnection, information transparency, and decentralized decisions. By supporting or substituting humans with robots to perform repetitive, dull, or unsafe operations, Fideltronik aims to ensure error-free production. The company can optimize costs by placing robots for assembling components. In addition, Fideltronik has implemented AI Optical Inspection for manual assembly to give the operator an additional chance to correct a mistake before a PCB is soldered. In terms of interconnection, the company’s IoT team is working toward training robots and machines to exchange data and knowledge. “For example, if we teach one robot how to assemble some difficult and specific components, every robot in the world that is compatible with our system will know how to do it,” states Wiecek. This also leads to information transparency as all the data gathered in the cloud is available to everyone to define strategy, production plans, and inform operators of any repetitive tasks ad hoc. “As a result, we can offer a more flexible and efficient production process through resource optimization, real-time tracking and process automation. Our customers benefit from cost and time-to-market reduction, gaining a considerable market advantage over competitors.”

"With a wide range of expertise, we are wellequipped to become a leader in the Industry 4.0 revolution and also help our clients to be part of and benefit from the 4th technological revolution"

Fideltronik defies the biggest challenge in the high-mix, low-volume manufacturing, which is the programming of robots and machines for every new product since there are several changeovers every day. At Fideltronik, there are hundreds of products lined up for manufacturing each year. While some are new revisions, many are from the same product family. But in each case, an engineer would have to write or modify a program. Using the classical approach to robotized assembly takes a lot of time and requires highly qualified engineers to program the application for every product. To get rid of this issue, Fideltronik plans to implement robots utilizing vision systems and tensometers that have the “feeling of a hand.” Using Reinforcement learning, robots can learn how to assemble components efficiently. Taking all the coordinates from product documentation, the robot can learn where to get the part and where to put it back. For this purpose, Fideltronik has achieved good results in its first laboratory trials. The company also plans to sell this AI-driven robot to other manufacturers to augment their processes.

No matter what the production requirements are, we deliver the required solution or service tailored to a client’s specific needs

Offering End-to-end Services

Fideltronik’s EMS offerings aim to implement innovative design thinking into every stage of its client’s product development cycle. “No matter what the production requirements are, we deliver the required solution or service tailored to a client’s specific needs,” informs Wiecek. Fideltronik’s EMS experts, in cooperation with the firm’s technology wing, plan the entire production process, from a mere idea up to a market-ready product including design, rapid prototyping, validation and certification, volume manufacturing, and after-market services. The company also conducts process automation with a customer-specific approach that includes R&D, testing systems, automation of production processes such as soldering, assembly, handling, and special processes like potting, siliconing, coating, hot melt gluing, and printing. Moreover, Fideltronik’s manufacturing line capabilities are empowered by AI and industrial analytics in the cloud to leverage production efficiency. “This blended expertise enables us to quickly create, analyze, and reconfigure manufacturing processes to stay cost-competitive while preserving the quality,” explains Wiecek.

"Our smart factory combines advanced technology with ai and industrial analytics to create an innovative and flexible ecosystem for highly demanding projects"

Powering the Era of Industry 4.0

To aid its Industry 4.0 efforts, the company launched another subsidiary, AI.ROB that provides innovative industrial solutions, leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as AI, IoT, and industrial big data analytics. By utilizing the knowledge from its engineering department about industrial automation and adding AI and IoT factors to the mix, Fideltronik offers advanced robotization. The company is working on the AI-driven applications aiming to support high-mix, low-volume production models. “With a wide range of expertise, we are well-equipped to become a leader of the Industry 4.0 revolution and also help our clients to be part of and profit from the 4th technological revolution,” says Wiecek. Today, several leading firms from various industries, such as lighting, telecom, medical, automotive, and consumer have benefited from Fideltronik’s expertise in smart manufacturing.

The Key to Foolproof Products

As the production increases, manufacturers need to test the products to check its quality quickly. Getting the test systems from external suppliers is time-consuming. To overcome this challenge, Fideltronik opened a subsidiary company, Fitech that develops advanced test systems and automating processes for the manufacturing industry. The company designs and builds perfectly adjusted solutions for process automation and robotization, improving process efficiency, product quality, time-to-market, and reducing operational costs. Fitech meets clients’ specific needs by providing fully customized solutions as well as out-of-box and standardized automation.
Fideltronik conducts checks for all its products or solutions before launching them in the market.

“We feel responsible for our client’s success, so the services and solutions we offer must be trustworthy and reliable while generating added value for them. Every solution we build is thoroughly tested in our plant production ecosystem to prove its value,” mentions Wiecek. The company collects feedback from the factory workers and engineers to make necessary adjustments to the manufactured products. Fideltronik evaluates its products as early as possible to iterate changes and corrections quickly. This way the company offers the best way to get a manufacturing-ready product that is completely validated in laboratory conditions as well as in the real world. “Only after we are deeply convinced it works perfectly and meets our factory needs, we are ready to offer it to our clients. We sell solutions that have already proved their value in our own factories,” he adds.

Smart Factory in Action

An instance that highlights the effectiveness of Fideltronik’s smart factory is its association with one of the leading players of the power industry. Due to a fire accident, the client’s EMS partner could no longer continue to serve. The client was looking for an EMS provider that could re-establish their whole production process to ensure on-time delivery of their manufacturing project while also meeting the market obligations. Fideltronik was chosen as the right fit, and within six weeks, the production was successfully re-launched, preventing the client from a huge business loss. Similarly, one of the biggest lighting providers was looking for a business partner to design and produce LED lamps for a smart farms project. The client required a fully customized and automated production line with the production being planned to be strictly seasonal. Fideltronik engineers carried out the R&D and the production line build-up, Fitech took care of automation, and the production was conducted in its Smart Factory. “Due to our flexible manufacturing capacity, we were also able to respond to rapid seasonal growth in demand, which happened to increase by eight times,” adds Wiecek.

Fideltronik aces at high-mix, low-volume production with a focus on customer-centricity and flexibility while providing end-to-end manufacturing services. The company can start production within the shortest time possible with little formalities. With 90 percent of the revenue generated from its EMS business, Fideltronik provides end-to-end services for electronics manufacturing.

With a focus on developing a wide range of well-designed and factory-proven/approved solutions, Fideltronik works to fulfill consumer expectations of speed and convenience. In accordance with its mission, the company is building an engineering center in Krakow, Poland - Robot University. “Krakow is an old academic city and we have access to great engineers and passionate people who will work with us. We want to establish R&D center focused on utilizing AI in robotic and automated applications,” adds Wiecek. Going forward, Fideltronik will continue to develop a wide range of well-designed and factory-proven solutions that embrace out-of-box automation and test systems as well as customized solutions for special manufacturing processes