Category: Business

Second (and last) article in the series on the alternatives that industrial SMEs have in front of difficulties that threaten their continuity. After an analysis of the situation in the first of them, this one deals with potential solutions that can be arbitrated in light of the conclusions of the first part.

As always, I have tried to do it from a positive point of view of the situation. I am aware that several of the solutions do not exactly enjoy a great reputation or press, but it is no less true that in many cases it is because they are taken improperly, either in time or in form.

What I mean by what is indicated in the previous paragraph is that the same solution, adopted when there is no other remedy left, can lead the SME to an undesirable end, when taken before and with due foresight, the result will surely be completely different.

In short, I believe that what this article exposes may well lead to a deep reflection on these alternatives, and above all, it should be a lever for a paradigm shift. The solutions will not come from outside, in the form of aid. If they come, they will logically be limited in time and quantity. The real solutions must come from an appropriate internal management of the company in the current situation.

I try in all my articles to establish possible solutions to the problems that I see arise in industrial companies. Sometimes these potentially successful solutions are temporary ones, as in the recent article about ERTEs, and other more structural, as when I wrote about Industry 4.0 and others.

In this case, I would say that it is a mixture of both. Some of the solutions serve to tackle problems inherent to the time that we are having to live and manage, and other recommendations go more to the substratum of the management of the company.

There is no doubt that we are facing an extraordinary situation, which has its influence on the future of companies, especially small and medium-sized ones, and among them, both those that were healthy companies before the pandemic and those that were not. Unfortunately, Covid 19 and especially its duration and effects have meant that both classes have now entered the same group.

This is the first of a series of two articles on the subject, in which, following my usual scheme when it comes to a series, I make an approach to the situation and in this particular case, how it has affected industrial SMEs especially to their chances of survival.

We constantly hear news about TLSs (Temporal Layoff Schemes). References are made to them almost daily in the press, radio and television, but especially when it is time for their extension.

What is the reason for so much publicity, if until now they were complete strangers? Are they an instrument with a vocation for continuity, or just a passing fad? Do they really serve as an instrument to solve the problem of unemployment and the lack of labour flexibility in Spanish companies?

Without a doubt, it is an instrument worth reflecting on. How they should be, how they should be streamlined to make them a useful and practical instrument, what they are like in other neighbouring countries, what conditions should be in place for their viability.

All this we must ask ourselves to make the TLSs a useful element with a vocation for permanence and that they do not become a tool that will soon be forgotten.

Second part of the series of articles on Digitization and Industry 4.0, two terms of the present time and especially of the future. A large amount of the funds committed by the EU as part of the post-pandemic recovery plan is tied to projects related to these concepts.

This time the writing is focused on the consequences that all this phenomenon will have or should have on the industrial sector, as well as on indicating the window of opportunity that it presents for the sector.

The phenomenon is unstoppable, that does not admit discussion at this time. Not that it will come one way or another. It is already here. It is up to us to be prepared as a society and as a sector, to have an adequate strategy to address it, since as I say, there will be funds to execute them.

Last but not least, I do not forget to ask for the support of all levels, public and private, to make this a reality, in addition to a collection of lines correctly written in the memory of the projects. Whoever believes that due to the origin of the terms this only affects the industrial sector is very wrong. It is a project of society.

In these turbulent times that we are having to manage, several technological ways have been opened to facilitate the communication of people and the management of the industrial sector.

In some cases, they have been completely opened because nothing or almost nothing was done. In many others, the current situation acts as an accelerator of something that was already conceived and whose utility had yet to be demonstrated. The current reality, with the harshness of the facts that surround us, has acted as perfect sparring to prove them.

In this first part of the two articles that I am going to publish on the matter of reference, I try, as I always intend to do, to contribute my grain of sand to clarify what digitization and industry 4.0 are, what their processes mean, and the most important thing for me, about its impact on the industrial sector.

The Spanish Toledo Pact commission has recently reached a series of agreements on pensions. Since this has not happened for many years, this topic has been given great relevance.

Within these agreements, a series of suggestions or recommendations are made, which are in line with what has already been indicated by the European Commission for some time, regarding the possibility of robots paying taxes, given the already wide implementation that exists, and above all, that it is expected to exist in the next 20 years.

In this article I show my doubts about the fact that it is a good recommendation and about the impact that all this has on the technological development that Spain is so in need of.

We come to the end of this series of four articles on mechanical subcontracting in Spain, with the fourth and final chapter entitled “What to do?”.

It is always the most complicated, as long as describing the past situations and the consequences thereof are more or less related to factual facts, while the part related to solutions is more subjective, and the “every master has his own trick”.

In any case, here are those that I propose, which are the result of my knowledge and experience in the matter and that of the people who have collaborated with me throughout this tetralogy.

I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.

In this third article of the four that I am carrying out on the subject of mechanical subcontracting, I will outline the different types of contract between the contracting company and the subcontractor. At least, the most relevant ones.

It is very important to understand the way in which the two companies relate and how it affects the service that the latter provide to the former in order to understand the problems that currently exist in mechanical subcontracting, and above all to indicate the possible solutions to the problems generated, which is at the end of the day, the reason to be of this series of articles.

Second article of the four that I am carrying out on the topic of mechanical subcontracting, a topic that has touched me and I have to live closely during my experience in the industry.
In this chapter, I will outline the consequences of the attitudes and policies that I described in the first of the chapters. And I will analyze it from the social point of view, the contracting companies and the subcontractors, as well as the affected workers themselves.

This is the first article of the four that I am going to carry out on the topic of mechanical subcontracting, a topic that has touched me and I have to live closely during my experience in the industry. With the collaboration of an expert, I have prepared this series that tries to visualize the problem from all angles, especially that of the supplier and that of the customer. We will go through all the stages of this relationship and we will outline a problem that is little talked about, and from what the little that is said, most is done without knowledge, and that represents a problem for the industry that, far from being resolved, is increasing its severity as the years go by, without anyone appearing to be doing anything relevant. My idea with this series is to wake up the consciousness of the parties involved, to provide solutions and above all, to carry them out.