Petra Troblová
Aimtec
Petra has been with Aimtec since 2008. For ten years, she was in charge of the marketing department, where she focused on raising awareness of Aimtec among both customers and the public. She led development of our new corporate identity and company pillars, organised the international Trends in Automotive Logistics conference and was editor-in-chief of Aimtec Insights magazine.
She currently specialises in communication with key customers and provides marketing support for our largest division, DCIx. Her professional career is closely connected with the SKLAD logistics association; she co-founded it in 2014 and currently serves as its managing director. Her hobbies include sport, and especially swimming and cycling.
Vinyl Production at GZ Media Is Built on Expertise, Technology and a Good Team
Among the distinctive speakers at the Trends in Automotive Logistics (TAL) 2025 conference was GZ Media’s Chief Executive Officer Michal Štěrba. This company from Loděnice, a small town near Prague, has an inspiring story: since its founding in 1951, it has seen a number of changes that have led it into the ranks of the world leaders in vinyl record manufacturing. One of this firm’s key innovations in recent years is the logistics and manufacturing automation project that it launched in 2023.
System sustainability, availability and AI – where to focus development for long‑term value
Seven years ago, Jan Kocián joined us as the head of product development for Aimtec DCIx. Ever since, he’s been focused on managing this digitalisation platform’s development team, developing it and improving its features and technology. He says much has changed today: the solution has seen a major transformation, its team has doubled, and performance, security and flexibility demands keep on growing. We chatted about how the development approach has changed, why system sustainability and effective cloud management matter, and some ways to leverage AI in logistics and manufacturing.
Trends in Czech Logistics 2025 Study: Automation Is Essential
Automation, the collection, evaluation and utilisation of data, the deployment of AI tools, and sustainability. These are the pillars of future growth – and the solution to logistics' most urgent problems, such as the manpower crunch, wage growth pressure and increasing regulation from the EU. These are the conclusions from the Trends in Czech Logistics 2025 study, prepared for SKLAD by the Ipsos agency.
What visions and news did this autumn’s Aimtec DCIx User Group meeting bring?
The regular meeting in Pilsen for users of Aimtec’s DCIx solution took place at the end of October. Participants learned Aimtec’s visions in logistics and manufacturing, the latest features the system has to offer, what plans are in store for future versions and more. Case studies from two companies, DŘEVO TRUST and DENSO MANUFACTURING CZECH, were on the agenda as well. Participants also showed great interest in the morning workshops on current topics, such as logistics automation and the application of AI, comprehensively interconnected and managed manufacturing, and enterprise digitalisation. Couldn’t make it to the meeting and missed the latest news, or want to go back over some of the presentations? Watch the videos from the main afternoon segment.
BI reporting brings full data automation, says Futaba Czech’s Radek Slanař
Futaba Czech manufactures steel components for cars. Its Czech plant in Havlíčkův Brod was built to serve as Futaba’s sole location in continental Europe – a role it still retains today. It is also highly valued from this Japanese industrial group’s standpoint because it strives for constant progress in operational management, which oversees logistics, manufacturing, maintenance and more. To achieve defined KPIs and provide precise and timely KPI reporting to its parent company, the plant recently switched to reporting its indicators with the help of BI. What fuelled the plant’s decision, what will the new tool bring it and what are its further visions? We spoke on all this and more with Radek Slanař, this Czech enterprise’s plant manager.
Petr Kraus, SPORTISIMO: Automation technologies can work miracles. But not on their own – these miracles take effort.
Petr Kraus has been in IT for over two decades. He’s full of insights into retail, logistics and manufacturing. The interconnectedness of these areas is what lets him view things with the needed distance. One recent project that he’s just completed is for the Ostrava central distribution centre of the sporting goods distributor SPORTISIMO, s.r.o. What questions did he consider? What challenges did he face? Did everything always turn out smoothly when he knew exactly what he wanted? How did he select suppliers and technologies, and what could he recommend, based on his rich experience, to other companies seeking to automate? We asked Petr about all this and more.
Rostislav Schwob: The Latest Aimtec DCIx Version Makes Connected Manufacturing and AI/ML a Reality
The world around us is constantly accelerating and globalising. That means growing competition, and companies are pushed into ever greater and more frequent changes. New technologies are rushing at them from all sides. It seems like just about everything can be automated now, and everything can control itself with help from digitalisation and artificial intelligence. How can the Aimtec DCIx digitalisation platform help companies with this? And what will our October seminar for customers be showing them? We came with these questions to the person best placed to answer them: Aimtec’s Supply Chain Solutions Director Rostislav Schwob.
What does it mean to be a key OEM supplier?
New car models are coming onto the market every day. And each new model is accompanied by a number of variants that we as customers can choose from. The effects are obvious. The number of Just in Sequence (JIS) suppliers – those delivering parts in sequence straight to the assembly lines of automotive manufacturers (OEMs) – is on the rise. “In sequence” means that products come prepared in the same sequence as will be used for assembly on the line. Why is this done, and what does a supplier need to do to satisfy customers in the tough automotive environment while also keeping full control over the fulfilment of the contracts?
Focus on your business and let professionals manage your IT systems
One thing is certain: cyberattacks are here to stay, so we have no choice but to be prepared and mitigate the risk. As Aimtec’s Chief Information Officer Michal Kárník explains, it’s best to adopt a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy, define an overall plan, and stick to it. We interviewed Kárník and asked which approaches he thought could guarantee that information systems would run smoothly, ideally without requiring any action from the customer.
Scherdel ‑ Flexibility as a key goal of automation
Inhouse logistics starts to be a difficult issue from companies of medium size. One such company is SCHERDEL, whose Czech division has embarked on a project to automate and digitalize logistics, specifically by implementing a fully automated warehouse full of self-driving robots. During the work, the entire concept changed several times, because one of the key conditions of the whole solution was flexibility, which is not easy to provide through automation. The experience of building an automated warehouse was submitted by the company's managers in a presentation at the TAL 2023 conference.
Market pressure is the greatest catalyst for change
Zebra Technologies, a global leader and innovator in automatic identification, conducted a Warehousing Vision Study among thousands of industry decision makers around the world, which yielded interesting industry perspectives and preferences. Marian Šramko, Vice President Sales, Eastern Europe & Middle East at Zebra Technologies, spoke about some of them.
Brano ‑ the path to 21st century logistics
From complete locking mechanisms, other mechanical parts, door handles to fuel tank caps for Skoda Auto and other car companies. This is the business of Brano, which has recently committed to a change in logistics and invested in digitizing its warehouse to minimize the role of humans. At the TAL 2023 conference, Denis Kittrich, a technologist from Brano, together with Jiří Žižka, project manager at Aimtec, explained how the project was carried out.
TAL 2023: What Safran's digital transformation looks like
The purpose of any change in company operation should be to improve, whether in terms of efficiency, cost or workflow. Ideally this is an upgrade that brings positive benefits in all areas. This may not be easy for large companies operating in different industries. At technology company Safran, they have done just that, relying on four key pillars of digital transformation, as explained by executives Frédéric Vétil and Bindioa Ouali at the TAL 2023 conference.
Resilience, prediction and risk monitoring form the key to modern logistics, says David Strnad
The automaker Škoda Auto is a major player in the world of logistics. Every day, 3,500 freight trucks arrive at his races. Managing everything from the perspective of warehouses and the entire system, and ensuring production and employment for 30,000 people, is a challenging task. Can an automaker turn logistics trends such as digitalisation and automation into a company reality? What’s the right way to face today’s challenges, and what does a successful project look like? David Strnad, Head of Brand Logistics at Škoda Auto, has shared his opinions in an interview with Aimtec’s Rostislav Schwob.
Five tips for successfully digitalising a plastics production line
Plastics manufacturing is a knotty problem for digitalisation – but it can be untangled successfully. A typical production hall is furnished with variously old presses from a variety of manufacturers. Each one has a different communication standard, e.g. OPC DA, OPC UA or Euromap 73 or 77. How can you collect operator and machine data in this complicated environment human-free? Can you stay constantly informed and in charge of every event? Take inspiration from the story of this company that presses plastics for the leading automakers and gain a guide on how to implement projects successfully.
