Just a decade ago, a mobile phone was an item for calls in early mornings or late evenings, when the rates were lower. Now, mobile phone has made it to the list of indispensable goods, and hardly anyone doesn’t use it for browsing social networks, filming videos or playing music. The unfortunate story of the Finnish giant’s Nokia mobile phone division is among the most well-known to illustrate the magnitude of the change and the rate of development and application of technologies. 

Due to poor judgement of competitive environment, Nokia’s mobile phone business experienced a major setback and couldn’t catch up with aggressive competitors that were offering innovations. Finally, it was devoured by the US giant Microsoft in 2014.

Innovation savvy accountant or a real professional? 

Professionals agree, that nowadays many companies from various industries, some of them – in Lithuania, are treading similar ground. Digital technologies are transforming the world of manufacturing rapidly, and data management becomes crucial in almost all processes – most of them are digitalised. Automation of manufacturing is also gaining speed.

According to Audrius Jasėnas, Director of SMART Manufacturing competence centre a public establishment InTechCentras, modern companies, which employ 150 or more employees and are thinking about the future, are looking for professionals in digital technologies.

“The truth is, that companies in Lithuania are looking for the talent among their employees, and most often heads of manufacturing or IT are being requalified for the job. I know a case when innovation savvy accountant became responsible for digital technologies. Of course, requalification is used for the purpose because there are no available specialists on the job market; thus, companies are tapping into their own resources,” says the professional. 

In 2018, InTechCentras and the Lithuanian Innovation Centre have published Lithuanian Industry Digitalization Roadmap 2019-2030. The roadmap was based on a research which identified a lack of 1 000 professionals in digitalisation of manufacturing processes. 

“Expertise in digital manufacturing would enable companies to take better and faster decisions, innovations in manufacturing processes would be implemented more rapidly, and it would enable the companies to look for digitalisation solutions in all departments taking into account their specific needs. Such professional could be responsible not only for digital technologies, but also could look for specific digital competences on the market, develop a dialogue about digitalisation with clients and partners – what changes are they implementing now and what are their plans for the future. Faster processes would enable companies to compete on a global market,” A. Jasėnas believes. 

VGTU programme to focus on education of required professionals

Prof. Dr. Vytautas Bučinskas, Head of the Department of Mechatronics, Robotics and Digital Manufacturing at the Faculty of Mechanics at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU), agrees that digital manufacturing professionals are needed in Lithuania, and notes that their demand will only grow in the future. Bachelor programme in Digital Manufacturing is designed to fill this gap. Programme graduates will be awarded a bachelor degree in engineering sciences. 

“Digital Manufacturing programme was designed to meet the needs of rapidly changing industry. Currently, the companies are using their internal competence potential. Though new solutions, based on technologies of cloud engineering, big data flows from mass production, and machine to machine communication, call for very specific competences. These processes are not limited to machine processing industry. It is relevant in food and other products’ processing industries, agriculture, or industry of biotechnologies,” says one of the authors of the Digital Manufacturing programme.   

According to V. Bučinskas, the programme focuses on two main areas

“The first focus area is organisation of modern manufacturing process. It covers various issues, such as machine manufacturing, product manufacturing, food production, production of biotechnologies, and many other where technologies are interrelated. The second focus area is digitalisation – the internet, internet of things, cloud computing technologies and their application,” says the professor. 

Unlocking of the human potential is another important aspect of transformation of the traditional manufacturing into an automated one, as the authors of the Digital Manufacturing programme say.

“The change creates more time for managers and other workers, and they can dedicate their energy to something more creative, they can focus on creating an added value. In addition, this increases our attractiveness in the market – more companies find resources for investment and new equipment. Nowadays, we have many modern and well-known manufacturing brands in Lithuania. Manufacturing of components, aviation technologies, hydraulic systems, lasers and laser related components is also a large branch of digital manufacturing. We have so many of them,” notes V. Bučinskas.