Garage48 with the European Regional Development Fund, Enterprise Estonia and Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications organized Idea Garage Industry 4.0 to gather some good and creative approaches on how to make manufacturing enterprises and factories run smarter. One of the goals was to introduce the startup mindset- getting things done fast- to the manufacturing enterprises, where processes are often slow,  complicated and require a lot of manual work.

Valdar Liive ( a mentor at Idea Garage Industry 4.0 and a Finnish-Estonian Trade Specialist and a former Director of Foreign Investments and Trade Promotion at Enterprise Estonia) concluded the whole outcome of the event very well: "I think this idea day was important because it brought together people with so many different professional skills and backgrounds.  It was clear to see that startups and manufacturing industry specialists can work excellently together with many good ideas produced in such short timeframe. Loads of good ideas were heard,  many of them with a  potential for further development".

There were all together over 90 participants who came to Garage48 to brainstorm about how to create and implement these complicated systems. 

We were happy to host a very cool Council of mentors: Taavi Tammiste and Asko Seeba from Mooncascade, Meelis Viiding (Genewix), Kushtrim Xhakli  (Connected Baltics), Maarika Truu (Clanbeat), Martin Verrev (TTU), Valdar Liive (Estonian Finnish Association), Jana Pavlenkova (Prototron Fund), Ermo Raiki Rebane (EstHus), Tähve Lõpp (Proekspert),Calum Cameron (meduza.ai & Startup Wise Guys) and last but not least our pitch coach Gleb Maltsev (Fundwise).

A big thank you to all the mentors on behalf of the team and participants!

There were 17 ideas pitched from which 7 teams were formed.

1.      Performance feedback

A system that can track the people`s time management and use of databases. A software tool to get feedback from the employees and performance managements.

We are processing the human prescription of their tasks. To improve their progress and capabilities.

2.      3D printers

We would like to make the students (in secondary schools) more aware about the technology and physics. We would like industrial companies to bring 3D printers/ prototypes to their nearest school.  Community positioned program for students and industries.  We are creating more awareness amongst the students regarding real-life problems that occur in the industries. This way they can connect the needs with the solutions.

3.      Extreme quality

We want to make visual inspection on the production line. We want the computer to spot the unknown/invisible problems so there will be higher quality products across various industries.

Slight and complex changes in product or material features during the production can remain hidden from the human eye when relying solely on visual information. Artificial intelligence (AI) together with computer vision may be used to spot unseen indicators of changes and quality issues during the production. AI itself uses cluster analysis- unsupervised learning method to find hidden patterns or grouping in properties.

4.      Smartify

Idea is to have a computer control for the older production system. So we can add more smart sensors to the machines.  We use regular and older systems that need to be upgraded. And that would be done in small or medium sized enterprises. Implementation in the industry 4.0 for older or smaller system by increasing the use of sensors in the industry. A product is a software, which is embedded to every device.

5.      Real-time production tracking

We need to produce a system/service/ platform that would allow higher efficiency. We need a cheap-to-run & easy-to-deploy solution for tracking unique components through the production process that could be extended to cover the shop floor of our subcontract partner as well. Efficient tracking of unique details is the key to better overview of the entire production process and efficient identification of defective components.

6.   WOOD ID- also announced as a WINNING IDEA of Idea Garage Industry 4.0!

Wood ID- the winner of Idea Garage Industry 4.o (with mentors Meelis Viiding and Valdar LIive)

7.      Metnork

Simple marketplace where we can connect clients and engineers. As well as connecting big customers with small customers. Receive price offers and give orders, offers, making it into a type of a steel industry E-Bay, where they can market their needs.

Big thanks, to Enterprise Estonia, for making  Idea Garage Industry 4.0 happen and  Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications for supporting and helping Garage48 on organizing this event.  

 Garage48 will take a short summer break to gather some strength and wisdom for a busy and packed season starting in September. Follow Garage48  on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to stay in touch with all the next events!  Hope to see you soon!