Zebra Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: ZBRA), a global leader in digitising and automating frontline workflows, today announced the launch of the Industrial Automation Centre of Excellence by Zebra and Clearview, a Zebra industrial automation distributor.
Situated in the UK’s thriving innovation district of Oxfordshire, the centre will be a resource offering relevant services, training, advisory, and practical demonstrations for manufacturing and logistics organisations and machine vision specialists across the EMEA region. The centre will support end users, machine builders and systems integrators looking for machine vision, 3D and AI solutions needed to secure greater asset visibility and support intelligently automated operations.
“Automotive, electric battery, electronics and semiconductor manufacturers and logistics organisations face new quality, compliance and safety challenges, requiring frontline engineers, machine builders and systems integrators to think and act in new ways,” said Donato Montanari, Vice President and General Manager, Machine Vision, Zebra Technologies. “They need a professional network that can show how technologies like AI and 3D can be used together to achieve goals and prepare for future growth.”
Fifty-four percent of European manufacturers expect AI to drive growth by 2029, according to Zebra’s Manufacturing Vision Study. However, 84% say they are struggling to keep up with the pace of new technology, with quality management issues like real-time visibility, keeping up with new standards and regulations, integrating data and maintaining traceability among their top quality management issues.
Training and upskilling courses will cover machine vision fundamentals and more advanced approaches for application and vertical specific use cases, as nearly three-quarters of manufacturing leaders (71%) plan to reskill their workers to enhance data and technology usage skills. With the centre’s problem-solving focus, Zebra customers and their machine vision specialists can bring in their own machine vision proof-of-concept applications and receive a highly valuable, independent specialist feasibility report and recommendation.
The centre also aims to be a place of networking and confidence building by sharing expertise, thought leadership and events to connect organisations and machine vision specialists. New relationships will be forged at a time when new thinking and collaboration is needed, and businesses look to turn technology investments into value drivers.
“This is an important step forward for the machine vision industry and the customers we support, bridging the gap between the technology and user knowledge, and helping to create the best solutions available,” said Allan Anderson, Managing Director and Founder, Clearview, which has offices in England, France, Spain, and Germany. “We are on a mission to democratise machine vision, and with our team of certified machine vision professionals, training courses, engineering services and state-of-the-art HQ and centre of excellence, we can help customers create great vision systems.”
Organisations looking to engage with the centre should reach out here.
