“Croatian agency for SMEs, Innovations and Investments (HAMAG-BICRO) in cooperation with European Enterprise Network (EEN) and Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture held a learning demonstration workshop on 28 September 2018. It took place at the hotel Westin (Zagreb, Croatia) and the title of the event was “Smart Factory: Digital Croatia”.

HAMAG-BICRO’s Director of the Development and Beneficiaries Support Division, Ms. Tamara Sarvaš, started the event by introducing the Smart Factory Hub project to the participants. That was followed by a short overview of the current status of Industry 4.0 in Croatia by the project’s facilitator, Professor Nedeljko Štefanić, founder and president of Lean management initiative, Head of the Croatian Industrialization Working Group and Head of Industrial Engineering Department at Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture.

After that there was a panel discussion with the topic “Importance of Industry 4.0 for the Croatian economy and society”. The moderator was Professor Štefanić, and panel members were experts in the mentioned field: Mr. Mario Antonić, State Secretary from the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts, Mr. Domagoj Šarić from the Croatian Chamber of Economy, Professor Bojan Jerbić from Department of Robotics and Production System Automation at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, and Mr. Željko Goja, President of the Steering Board for HSTEC Ltd., one of the Smart solution providers. The event came to a close with the presentations from twelve Smart factory solution providers from Croatia.

There were 46 participants at the workshop as well as media representatives.“