Ep. 52: “If you can’t embrace digitalisation, you won’t move forward” Ankit Podcast

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Ep. 52: “If you can’t embrace digitalisation, you won’t move forward”

In this episode of The WTiN Podcast, we talk to Frederic Dryhoel, corporate communication manager, and Lieven Beke, marketing and product manager, at Picanol.

Jessica Owen
Music, hello. My name is Jessica Owen, and I am the Deputy digital editor at WTI N, and this is the WTI N podcast, the fourth industrial revolution is underway, and the world of textile and apparel is just one industry that is benefiting from new and innovative technologies. With this in mind, for this series, I'll be talking to companies across the textile apparel landscape about their new technologies, the benefits of digitalization, and the advice that they'd give to others who are trying to implement such solutions. This week, I'm joined by Frederic Dryhoel and Lieven Beke from Picanol. Frederick is the company's corporate communications manager, and Lieven is the marketing and product manager. In this episode, the pair talk about Peking all's latest digital developments, launching a machine virtually during COVID 19, and how the company is continuing to recruit and target younger generations.

Good afternoon, Frederick and Lieven, it's lovely to have you on this show today. How are you both?

Speaker 1
Thank you, Jessica. Thank you for the opportunity to join this first ever podcast for Picanol. I have been running a marathon this weekend, and I'm still recovering from that exercise, but I'm quite okay.

Jessica Owen
Well, that's very impressive. You put me to shame and leaving. What about yourself? How are you doing?

Speaker 2
Yes, I'm also happy to participate in this premiere, I would say. And thank you for inviting us. Yeah. Well,

Jessica Owen
you're very welcome. Well, I guess first of all, I should ask you, how you how Germany is and what the situation is like there. I mean, are you coming to the end of the pandemic, or what is the situation like?

Speaker 1
Well, we are still coping with the pandemic. In the course of this year, since March, we have taken all these steps to ensure that we keep our people safe and that all our plants and businesses worldwide remain in full operation, but there is some impact on our business, and we are doing our utmost to safeguard the health of our people and to safeguard our production.

Jessica Owen
Okay, well, we'll probably talk about COVID 19 later on, as it seems to be the subject of the year, doesn't it? So we'll talk about that. But first of all, then, well, I've invited you both to talk about pea canal and how weaving is becoming more digital. On this series, so far, I've spoken to a couple of people in the knitting industry, so I thought it would be quite interesting to see what's happening in the world of weaving as well. So firstly, do you mind just telling me a bit about Peking all and what the company does for for those listeners who might not know too much about you? Okay,

Speaker 1
Jessica, I'll take that one. So picanol develops, produces and markets high tech weaving machines which are based on air jet or rapier technology, we do supply our machines to weaving Mills all over the world, and we also offer such services as installation, commissioning and troubleshooting after market sales, think about Spare parts and accessories. And last but not least, training, which was, of course, a challenging, a challenge during these pandemic times. Today, I think about 2600 weaving mills around the world are using piconal weaving machines, and these mills have together an installed base of about 175,000 weaving machines in operation. Wow.

Jessica Owen
Okay, that's quite big numbers then. So tell me a bit more about the company, and when it was founded, I imagine that the weaving machines back then must be quite different to the ones that you build now?

Speaker 1
Yes. So our company was founded in 36 and we have been playing a pioneering role as both a developer and manufacturer of highly productive, productive weaving machines since then. And maybe a small anecdote to start our name, picanol comes from an individual called Jaime piccano camps, who was a Catalan inventor, and he was in fact, the very first head of the weaving machine development department. So he was the inspiration for the company name. And back in the 30s and 1930s we launched our. First production ready weaving machine, which was called the Omnium. So the first picanel weaving machine ever was actually a flying shuttle machine with a weaving width of nearly two meters, and it was able to reach a speed of about 140 weft insertions per minute. And you asked how that compares to our current machines. Well, with our current weaving machines, we have reached record speeds of more than 2000 weft insertions per minute. And we also offer machines with a weaving width up to 540 centimeters. So I think we've made quite a bit of progress in those 84 years. And I think I'm proud to confirm that throughout these past decades, we have remained faithful to our core mission, which is developing and assembling innovative and reliable high tech weaving machines.

Jessica Owen
Well, that's very impressive. I mean, yes, I mean being able to up the numbers like that is very cool. So you mentioned there that you specialize in rapier and also air jet weaving machines. Do you mind just sort of explaining the difference between these two then, if you don't mind, well,

Speaker 2
I think I will take this question, because I'm more into the real technical matters. But let's start with the air jet weaving machines. With an air jet machine, the filling thread is propelled into the shed by a jet of compressed air, and a pre winder, which is an extra device, is then supplying the correct length of the filling thread. Each step now moving on to the rapiers. In the case of the Rapier weaving machines, the insertion is done on a completely different principle. In the case of the Rapier weaving machines, we have a flexible rapier tape on each side of the machine, and each rapier tape has a gripper mounted on it. The Left Hand gripper carries the filling into the shed up to the middle of the machine, and there it meets the right hand side gripper, who is then taking the thread and which is then completing the insertion now pick and all has always been a pioneer, a pioneer when and we really believe we set the benchmark with our innovative and reliable high tech weaving machines. We're fully aware that in this fast changing world of weaving, the needs of the weaving mills in general, but also the expectations of our customers and their operators, are evolving rapidly. The market is nowadays driven by an increasing concern for environmental topics, higher cost and even lower availability of resources in general and skills in particular, as well as the digital revolution, let's not forget that which is really impacting all industries. And this is why, at picanol, we like to say that we are really driven by innovation. Okay,

Jessica Owen
interesting. So just talking about the air jet and the wrap your weaving machines, and what are the sort of disadvantages or advantages? Does one make fabrics that another can't, for example, or what's the difference there?

Speaker 2
Well, in general, Ed jet machine have, have always been looked at as machines suitable for more, let's say, mass production oriented machines, and whereas rapier machines, people think of when they have flexibility in mind,

Jessica Owen
right? Okay, I understand, right? And so in September then, which was a few months ago, I understand that pekingau unveiled the new Terry plus eye air jet weaving machine. So what is special about this, then, compared to your other machines, and why did you decide to develop and launch this Well,

Speaker 2
the most important factor is that our agent machine for the weaving of dairy applications is today no longer different to any of the others we offer at picanol. As a matter of fact, we launched a completely new Edge platform in 2019 and this was revealed to the industry for the first time at ITMA, Barcelona. At the beginning, this new platform was used for, let's say, mainstream applications. However, we can now say that our dedicated execution for Peri application applications is now running on the same New Edge platform,

Jessica Owen
right? Okay, and you said just a minute ago that sustainability in the environment is becoming more important, and apparently this machine has sort of been designed with that in mind. Is that true? Well,

Speaker 2
the concept of sustainability. And the long term focus have been a recurring theme in our story for the past 84 years. This sustainability manifests itself primarily in our products and processes. Let me give you an example, the use of simulations for the design of more energy efficient weaving machines, the conversion of old iron into high tech castings durable mechanical components and advanced electronics that ensure the optimum quality of fabrics and, of course, less waste and so on. These days, sustainability is interwoven in all of the processes and products of our company from development to production, I would say, and we also try to integrate our sustainability efforts into other business processes. I'm referring here to everything from our ambition of being a good employer to doing the utmost to limit the impact we have on the environment. But having said this, constructing a machine that uses as few resources as possible is not a straightforward task. It requires really a strong focus from our desire designers, right from the initial stage of the machine development. Now, sustainability is obviously not something that you can simply add on to a machine. We need to construct the machine to be sustainable. A clear example of this philosophy is our sumo drive concept for the weaving machines. Sumo drive is the main motor we use to drive our machines. Now this was introduced as far back as in the 90s. This is a clear and excellent example of how it is possible to design a weaving machine that uses as few resources as possible. In this example, you will find that the motor itself is not only the most efficient of its kind, but it's also engaging very directly on the machine. So what does that mean? Well, it means that it is eliminating the need for drive belts and extra gear transmissions, etc, which in turn leads again to energy savings, of course, with regard to our Terry plus i, which is, after all, an air jet machine. One can also expect major improvements to the air insertion system. Building further on, our considerable experience, we combined a modified relay nozzle distance. Now, to give some background, the relay nozzles carry the rest from one side to the of the machine to the other. Well, we combined the modified relay nozzle distance with a range of new slay motions. So whilst the modified relay nozzle leads, on one hand to stable flight of the weft yarn, this is important to safeguard the fabric quality. The new sleigh motion guarantees that there is the maximum possible amount of insertion time available. Now, the combination of these two elements is of the utmost importance in terms of controlling the air consumption. And the ability to control the air consumption is the most important element when we talk about looking at the energy consumption of an energy machine,

Jessica Owen
right? Okay, interesting. Well, it sounds like this. So you really need to be technically minded and understand these machines to know how to improve them make them more efficient. So that's very interesting. So I understand that you had to launch this machine virtually because of COVID 19. So how did that launch go? And how did it compare to launching it? Say it. Ma,

Speaker 2
let me start by making a statement, and hopefully that will also answer the other questions we at Picken all we all really miss the physical events. This is by far the best way of meeting and interacting with customers and prospects, and it is perfect for demonstrating the capabilities of picking all as an organization. And we are all hoping that we can return to meeting up in person again very soon. However, as we all know, in 2020 it was impossible for these events to take place, so we had no option but to seek alternatives. But as things went on, the virtual launch of our new 30 plus, I went very well. We reached an audience of about 700 people, and received some really good positive feedback from them. So that's always very, very pleased having done this virtual launch, and looking back at it, we actually realize now that it even has a few advantages compared to show where we can meet in person. I'm referring here to the fact that you can reach a broad audience in a very short. Time frame. So our feeling for the future is that we will see a combination of virtual launches as well as the traditional physical events.

Jessica Owen
Okay, it's funny you say that lots of other people have been saying that there are advantages to doing things online, and there's, there's advantages to doing it in person, and that moving forward, when COVID 19 has hopefully, you know, had its time gone away, that it will be a case that we combine those two. So it will be interesting to see what the future holds there, I suppose. But I mean, as you said, we've all missed those shows, and I was at ITMA last year, and it was so impressive walking around the knitting and weaving halls. And I think they had a specific 15 minute slot where you could turn them all on. And it was so noisy, but it was really, really interesting to see them all working. So I imagine that is hard for people not to be able to see them in motion.

Speaker 2
It is. And one should also not forget that in big companies like picanol, we have dedicated teams that work year in year out to prepare those events. So for them, it's really they have been hard, hit very hard by this COVID pandemic. Yes,

Jessica Owen
I imagine that is a shame. So moving on then this machine, I understand that it's driven by data, and that sort of driven by data is a motto that Peking all sort of runs by. So it uses sensors, and I think it has something called a smart shed system. Could you tell me more about that then, and the other sort of digital capabilities,

Speaker 2
yeah, as is also a little bit technical, I will answer this question. Well, Smartsheet is indeed an excellent example of how the digital capabilities can lead to higher performance. In the case of Smartsheet, we have for every harness frame an independent motor. This gives us really plenty of data and from the sensors as well as from the motors, this data, in turn, enables us to display the total frame movement, so the movement of each individual harness frame, but it also allows us to get an overview on the load on the system. By doing this, the user can almost instantly check if the machine is set properly, which is very important to safeguard the fabric quality, but perhaps maybe also evenly important, the user can immediately see if there is potential for increasing speeds and performances. And

Jessica Owen
this isn't obviously the only way that the company is embracing digital tools and technology. So are you able to tell me about some of the other things that you're doing at the company? Because I think there are some other digital features that you're using.

Speaker 2
Yeah, that's quite correct. I have to say that really, everyone at pick and all has really embraced the contact of the concept of digitalization. And if you will not do that, we will not be able to bring forward other applications as well. So I just mentioned, mentioned smart chat, but there are others as well. If we look at our latest theory, plus I as an example, you will see that the user has a lot of other features where he can see our commitment to digitalization. On this machine, we introduced a new blue touch display. It has a very prominent place on our machine. It is large, it is very user friendly and responsive, and it has all possible ways of wireless connecting as a standard. The reality is that to weave, you need more than just a nice display, but we realized that so our insertion system is fully digital, and all insertion settings can be done from our machine display. I should probably also highlight here the new generation of prewinders on which the length of the weft yarn can even be adjusted while the machine is running. With previous concepts, one had to stop the machine and do a mechanical intervention. So this has been digitalized. And to give you another and last example, I will use signal lamps. They are not just nice and bright and led, but they enhance also extra functionality and information very visible to the user, right?

Jessica Owen
Well, I imagine you're saving time there as well, which is something everyone looks for. I have one question. Actually, you mentioned that you're using blue touch displays. When I was speaking to someone in the knitting industry, they said. Thanks to digital displays that are quite intuitive and user friendly and and thanks to software, being able to program a knitting machine is actually allowing more women to enter the industry because they're well, they're not as heavy, they're easier to use. I mean, would you say that the same thing is happening in the weaving industry? Do you see more women there now?

Speaker 2
Must say that with this new blue touch display, we really focus on the younger generations of users. Today, they use our machines, and maybe tomorrow, they will decide on which machine to buy. So we make sure with our new display that this is fully compliant to the requirements of the new generation. So it's very user friendly, it's intuitive control. It can be connected in all possible ways, and that is key if we want our machines to be used now and in the future.

Jessica Owen
Okay, interesting, right? Well, the next thing that I wanted to talk about is I actually got to attend a conference in Huddersfield in the UK two years ago now, and there was a representative from Peak null, and I think his name was Tony, and he said that the company has invested a lot in virtual reality. So co bots, exoskeletons, workroom training. Is that true? And how are employees getting on with that?

Speaker 1
Thanks, Jessica, that is absolutely true. We even had our own container with all these new technologies, in which we invited all our operators in eper to get to know these new technologies. And I can confirm that we are currently using virtual reality in the training programs for our operators. So this basically means that they can perform a first assembly wearing virtual reality glasses. And on top of that, we are also using virtual reality to offer trainings to our customers, as well as to give them a virtual tour of our showroom in Ebers and Eber and I'm happy to report that we have had some really good feedback on these initiatives from both employees and customers. Oh,

Jessica Owen
good. And has this been helpful during the pandemic as well? Then

Speaker 1
yes, yes, of course. So we are always looking at new ways of connecting, of communicating with both our employees and customers. And

Jessica Owen
so at this conference where I think Tony decock or Dick cock. I'm not sure how you pronounce his name, but he also said that there was a lack of skilled people in the industry, and that modernizing companies and training them in new ways and helping to attract them, like your touch screens, for example, as you mentioned leaving all of this is helping to attract younger people. So would you agree with that? Then, yes,

Speaker 1
I think everyone would agree today that making a company industry four points ready requires people with specific skills that set our reality is that technical profiles in this region, in Flanders, are very hard to find, so we are focusing a lot on having good partnerships with universities, with high schools, with colleges. And in this respect, we give lots of students the opportunity to visit our production facilities or to even realize an internship at picanol. And this is a creative approach which assists us in terms of attracting new talent that will hopefully help us in further digitalizing and modernizing our company. Every year, we do organize dozens of company visits so that students can take a look behind the scenes of our production, of the production of our high tech weaving machines. And we have guidance guides that take the students on a tour from the foundry to the weaving machine demo room. Obviously, these activities have had to be put on hold as a result of the pandemic, but we hope to start them again in in the course of next year.

Jessica Owen
Yeah, hopefully that would be great if we could all do that. So Peking all then has been digitalizing for many years now. I guess you sort of said like you're sort of pioneering in this industry. But would you say that it's maybe only recently that industry 4.0 and this whole topic has really become important,

Speaker 2
if I may answer this question, the term industry 4.0 has indeed come to the surface more and more over the past years. Mm. But as usual, there are some customers, some pioneers that were and continue to do exactly what nowadays gets the label industry 4.0 from our pick and also perspective, we always have been convinced for many years already that machines will become fully digital. Initially, being digital was more about making the life of the user easier, the ease of setting, the ease of repeating these settings, and so on. However we will, we are convinced that soon we will enter a new phase where this data will actively be used to increase machine performance, to increase sustainability, and so on and so on. If you allow me to use the example of smart yet, again, with smart yet, as I said, as we explained, the load on the individual motors is displayed, making it possible to see if there is still margin for a speed increasement, so a higher production. So these are examples, what we will be see coming more and more in the future. How we use the data to really increase the performance,

Jessica Owen
right? Okay, then and I mean, there are so many ways in which digitalization can benefit. I mean, as you said there, it can make things more efficient user friendly. You save time. It's more sustainable. But I think in previous years, some people have been a bit worried about adopting new technologies and becoming a bit more digital. So would you say that COVID 19 has potentially pushed the weaving industry to become more digital, to sort of take that leap, as it were.

Speaker 2
Well, for sure, COVID 19 was a massive shock to everybody, and we all had to give. Had to be given time to adapt to it at pick and all, we first had to get acquainted on a personal level, and then as an organization, on reflection, the lessons learned have helped us and our customers actually to start interacting with each other and to use the machines in a more digital way, so We're now much better organized in terms of using the modern ways of communication to talk to customers, to efficiently inform our customers on new developments. And an excellent example of that is the webinar we held on the Terry plus i, and the fact is that we've got better at getting data from our machines than we were at the beginning of this year. So without a doubt, the intention of starting to use modern means of communication was there. But we're if we are honest, the pandemic has given us and probably also our customers, the push that was needed to accelerate it. But let's not forget one thing, it will still remain as important as ever, that we also can physically be close to our customers. Thanks to our worldwide presence in the main textile areas, with local teams, in spite of the pandemic, we have been able to continue to serve our customers in the best possible way. It might sound contradictory, but by this, I mean that we have also been able to make a real difference. So it's not only being digital, you still have to be at the customer as well. Well.

Jessica Owen
That goes back to what you were saying about trade shows. You need that mix of personal interaction, and also maybe the online aspect. So there's pros and cons to both sides and and yes, I think every I don't think the I don't think meeting people in person will ever go away. I think we all we're social animals, aren't we humans? So I think we would miss that too much. So how important is digitalization for the industry? Then moving forward? I mean, you've already named so many benefits to it, but I guess it will help companies stay more relevant competitive as things go on.

Speaker 2
Well being digital will become more and more crucial, and to keep making a real difference for our customers, we can all will, for sure, continue to move in that direction. Now, data is delivered not only to make the life of the user easier, on top of that, the data is now being used more and more to improve the machine performance, also to enhance our new designs to if you put out a new design. We want to know how it works, how it performs, to get data on that in a much quicker way. We use now digitalization, and hopefully this is all this data will serve as a playground for smart algorithms, and who knows, artificial intelligence that will make our. I've achieved,

Jessica Owen
yeah, it's quite exciting. I think what the future is going to hold for the industry, it'll be interesting to see what new developments sort of come about. So we're sort of coming to an end now, unfortunately. But how has the rest of the year been for peak and old then, I mean, I think I read that you produced your 100 1,000th rapier machine earlier this year. So, I mean, that's something positive. So how has the rest of the year been for the company? Well,

Speaker 1
COVID 19 didn't stop us from realizing some fantastic new milestones. These included the production of the 100,000th rapier machine in our history and the 1 million harness frame, I think, or I suppose, that the biggest challenge we have had to cope with has been the travel restrictions. We believe it's very important to be close to our customers, and our experience has been that other means of communication, like video conferencing, don't really have the same impact as a face to face meeting or a service intervention. So fortunately, we have invested heavily over the years in our worldwide presence and in our addition to our Belgian head office in ipur, we do have production facilities in Asia and Europe, and these are linked to our own worldwide service and sales network. So even in spite of all the Coronavirus restrictions, we have been able to stay fairly close to our customers. Oh,

Jessica Owen
good. Well, I'm pleased to hear it. So finally, then, has the company got any more plans for 2021 then and onwards?

Speaker 1
Well, we only have two weeks left, but for the remainder of 2020 and the first months of 21 we still anticipate the continued high level of uncertainty due to the ongoing pandemic, where the development of customer demand is likely to be exposed to increased risk. However, we at picanol will continue to strengthen our market position by further investing in our people. We are still recruiting lots of people for our headquarters in Eber. We will continue to invest in R and D, in new machines and also new features, and we hope that 21 will offer us the opportunity to once again present our innovations live to a broad audience, and we will continue to invest in the industrial internet of things and big data to further improve our machines and to solve customer problems more quickly and to also offer new services to our customers. Well,

Jessica Owen
good luck with all of those developments. Hopefully, they can, they can go ahead as planned. And it's great to hear that you're recruiting as well. I mean, so many people have lost their jobs this year that that's a really positive note. Um, well, we're going to have to wrap things up for today, I'm afraid. But I mean, it's been lovely to speak to you both about the industry, and hopefully you've enjoyed your first ever podcast. So thank you very much for joining me. It's been great.

Unknown Speaker
Thank you.

Unknown Speaker
Thank you with pleasure. It was an experience.