Tell us a bit about the journey that brought you to us as an LER.
I remember when I was around 9 years old, my uncle went to Germany, and he brought back gifts for my brother and me. I got a car, and he got a robot, and I really wanted that robot! So perhaps it all started there. Growing up, I was really interested in technology and thought I might pursue computer programming, but I graduated with a BSc in Economics and International Trade and went to work initially as an export manager and latterly as a brand manager in the textile business. The skill set I was developing was highly transferrable so from there I moved into the hospitality sector as a sales manager and then about 20 years ago, I joined what is today Pomurje Technology Park. At that time, PTP was purely an incubator, and they were looking for people that could help start-ups and my experience was a good fit. Over time, the business model of the technology park has expanded – unlike some of the other DIHs in the Network, we’re a private company so we had to learn what services we could develop that would deliver revenue. Since then, my role has expanded to where today I head up external relations for PTP, and obviously part of that role involves me being the LER for DIH².

Is there a strong entrepreneurial culture in Slovenia?
By the 1980s, there was already quite a large private sector here and we also had a lot of people that had experience working across the border in Austria so there was that influence. I think this gave us a head-start on other parts of Yugoslavia. But when Yugoslavia split apart, the textile business that I worked for, which was one of the largest employers in the Balkans with 6,400 employees, fell into bankruptcy. From the ruins of that failure came a lot of spinouts and there was obviously a need to help those businesses get started. That’s where PTP initially found its purpose. We were looking for all ways that we could help increase the survival rates of these young enterprises.

And what does PTP look like today?
Today our mission has evolved to assist start-up and scale-up companies with the provision of the necessary infrastructure, expert services, targeted training, mentoring and promotional content that they require. We help clients with the preparation and implementation of innovative business projects and provide support for starting new businesses and growing and developing existing businesses. We differ from other technology parks in the region in that we’re not just based around a building but rather the services that we deliver and because of that our geographical reach has expanded from our original region within Slovenia to where we now work across the whole country. We also work closely with both regional and national governments in Slovenia and because we can see what works for business, we have the opportunity to help shape policy through these relationships.

In DIH², our purpose centres around agile manufacturing. Is there anything different about AM in Slovenia?
Agile Manufacturing is in our DNA in Slovenia. We’re a small market of just over 2 million people, so to be competitive we’ve had to learn to be agile. Slovenian companies really have two choices, either remain small and niche and serve the domestic market, or export and grow. That is always the choice when it comes to considering whether to scale-up. Today, we’re a strong player in the automotive component sector and a number of multinational manufacturers have established operations here. This is partly one of the reasons that we are one of the top 10 per capita users of robots in manufacturing in Europe, but it has also resulted in a lot of research and development being conducted here.

We funded 26 Transfer Technology Experiments (TTEs) in DIH² to deliver against our belief that we can advance factories using robotics. You were the LER for D-Mould, so what can you tell us about it?
D-Mould brought together two technology partners – TECOS and Flexido – as well as a manufacturing company called Polycom. Polycom supplies injection-moulded parts for the automotive, household, and electronic sectors. Their niche market is customers who need technically demanding products with high tolerances and specialist materials. Meanwhile, Flexido specializes in the technological restructuring of toolmaking using a very high level of automation and robotization and TECOS is a Slovenian toolmaker cluster with a reputation of being a leading research and innovation centre for the Slovenian manufacturing industry. D-Mould is a digital system for automating a smart injection-moulding production line. Parts produced from the moulding machine are quickly assessed for quality, they are mechanically picked and then placed into a crate using a cobot arm, after which they are transported by autonomous vehicles to a vertical storage space where they are again picked and placed into shelves of the warehouse by a robotic arm.

What was your involvement in bringing D-Mould to DIH²?
To generate interest and promote the call, we held a DIH² Robot Day which was very well attended, and from that we received a lot of enquiries. My role from there was to support potential applicants through the process and prep them for the Jury Day. We actually had four strong candidates, three of which got to pitch their proposals to the jury and of course D-Mould were successful. I already knew the TECOS guys but wasn’t so familiar with Polycom but once I met them, I was really impressed with their vision and what they wanted to achieve.

What is the future of D-Mould?
There is a lot of opportunity to expand the solution within Polycom and this will have a significant positive impact on their business. Also, many of the ROSE-AP components of D-Mould are applicable to other industrial sectors and Flexido is already seeing strong interest from other potential users of the solution. I believe they will create a lot of success from this. And this is of course a great showcase for us at PTP.

DIH² is a large and diverse network – can you talk a little about your experience as a member?
We all come from different backgrounds. We’re from different countries and different cultures and we’re all at slightly different levels of industrial development. And add to that that our organisational structures are different – there’s no standard DIH definition. Then there are language differences – sure we all speak English, but…..differently. But when you put it all together, it works. We continually learn from and challenge each other, and this has had a huge impact on our results. If we’d all come from similar organisations and backgrounds, I think the output would have been very different. On a more personal level, I’ve made so many great professional relationships and knowing that I can call them any time for help is priceless.

Final question - what else excites you in robotics today?
Honestly, there is little that doesn’t. As I said, I was interested in technology from an early age and that has never stopped. What we are living through today in terms of technological development is simply fascinating. I believe the benefits that robotics can deliver are immense and will continue to improve human life – for example helping us taking care an aging population. And for sure industrial robots will make us economically more effective, taking over monotone, iterative operations, heavy loads manipulation and logistics, while at the same time providing constant quality and bigger through-put. For me personally it is incredible how programming methods are becoming more user-friendlier, so lower skilled people can teach robots how to weld or paint. However, I also think we need to be aware of the socio-economic impacts that may result from this. I saw a study in Germany that said 84 million jobs would be lost through robotization and 69 million created. That’s a gap of 15 million that potentially leads to more and more unemployed, or at best under-employed people in our societies. So, we need to have some big thinking here – should we tax robot ‘workers’ and redistribute that back to our citizens through some sort of universal income? Add to this concerns around cybersecurity and a general unease over AI. These are big questions for us that need to be addressed.