How innovation, collaboration result in greater success

Omron Open 2023 in Hoffman Estates, Ill., emphasized many topics, but key among them was innovation and looking ahead to the future. Manufacturing is evolving in new ways and offers a great deal of potential to try new things and make strides that are better for society as a whole. In a video interview, Peter Brouwer, Vice President Sales, Omron Automation Americas; and Tim Fabian, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at Flow Waterjet, which is part of the Shape Technologies Group, discussed how their collaboration and willingness to innovate has benefited both companies and has resulted in a strong partnership that has lasted more than 30 years. Flow Waterjet also was awarded the first Omron’s Innovation Award during the opening presentation.

“Innovation and technology-based solutions is the heart of everything we do,” Brouwer said. “We’ve been in this business for more than 90 years. Kazuma Tateishi created Omron with the mission to contribute to society through technology advancements.”

Fabian said of innovation, “Some of the lessons we’ve learned, frankly, over the last 3 to 4 years have taught us we don’t always see things coming as we expect them. If you think about innovation, it’s not just about mapping out what the next 10 years will look like, but also to be able to adapt quickly. We saw many lessons throughout the pandemic ranging from supply chain issues to workforce shortages that required us to change our roadmaps and product lines to be innovative to solve new problems that we didn’t see coming.”

Brouwer and Fabian also discussed topics such as the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) in manufacturing and how its rise has changed how they do business and sort through information to find what matters. They also talked about environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles and how they’ve shaped what Omron and Flow Waterjet do as well as a look to the future and what they see in the road ahead.

Chris Vavra, web content manager, CFE Media and Technology, cvavra@cfemedia.com.

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