Manuel Servián (AFAR): "It's nearly impossible to become more competitive entirely on your own"
Because of the current situation, manufacturers of cooling systems must constantly invest in technology, training, reengineering, and analyze new trends, asserts Manuel Servián Vida, Manager of AFAR (Association of Andalusian Cooling Manufacturers) in the following interview, which provides the main keys on how to increase competitiveness in the sector.
What are the main challenges that Andalusian cooling manufacturers are facing?
In such a tremendously globalized and ever-changing society, it's quite hard to give valid solutions all the time. Different trends make it necessary to come up with new technologies, to adapt to changes in the codes and standards, to make deeper simulations of future scenarios, to train talent constantly and to revise the procedures on the organizational and productive structure.
In times like the ones that have come up recently, where globalization wears its worst face, with supply chains breaking down and prices of raw materials skyrocketing out of control, to name some of the toughest, then the solutions we currently have will simply not do.
This obligates us to invest constantly in technology, training, re-engineering, and analysis of new trends. What we have to do is to work together with the different actors in the industry, be they universities and tech centers or the public sector, and getting suppliers and even the competition involved as well. The goal must be to increase competitiveness and that is unlikely to be achieved in isolation.
Then what are the most immediate tasks that need to be undertaken?
The most immediate challenges are the following: a process of implementing Industry 4.0 in the heart of the organization; a decided effort to train talent on every level; increasing collaboration and cooperation among all the actors in the industry; continuing to foster internationalization; and revising processes that have taken a hit by globalization.
Taking all this into account, how do you see the sector evolving this year?
The sector is by no means immune to the pandemic process or war situations such as the one in Ukraine. Together with changes in technology and energy, they end up causing instability in the economic and financial world. This will make it a year of transition, of re-adapting and trying to reach the levels of 2019 and in some cases even surpass them. And of figuring out from the Next Generation funds how to take on the changes in store for us in the future.