There is a saying that ‘you learn every day if you are listening’. Well, I’m going to add to it and say “You are going to learn every day if you are looking and listening!” And this was very true of my recent visit to Agritechnica 2019 in Hanover towards the end of last year.
It was the show of all shows; it was the world’s leading trade fair for agricultural machinery with 2,750 exhibitors from over 51 countries all under one roof and thousands of pieces of agri-machinery.
So along with my new colleague, Mark Carmody, a mechanical design engineer, who has just joined the Donite team, we set off to view, collate, analyse and check the make-up of the various machinery, as well as to listen to those who were trying their very best to sell their product. We were there to soak up, not just the atmosphere, but as much information as possible and to look, listen and learn.
What was interesting about the show is where technology, artificial intelligence and science will have an important part to play in this sector going forward. It can improve the efficiency of operations, save labour through automation of menial and repetitive tasks and reduce costs if applied correctly. Technology can help capture more data of high quality, report back in real time and allow you to interrogate that data to help with decision making before implementation.
Agritechnica 2019 was a showcase of the cutting edge in technology in agriculture and for Donite Plastics was a must-attend event. It was great to meet up with so many of our customers and chat about business, technology and products.
We also noted that as manufacturers, many are great at making their own products, but very few have much knowledge of the many plastic processes that are available, in particular, the vacuum forming process and how it can add real value to their end product. So that was a great talking point, when we had the opportunity of course as we wanted to listen too.
Thank you Agritechnica 2019, we certainly saw some amazing machinery and products, we heard how the industry is changing and we certainly learnt a lot more about the agri-tech sector.
As they say “Learn to listen. Opportunity sometimes knocks very softly”.
Michael Barton