Growing A Digital Mindset in the Lime Industry With An IIoT Platform…
I NTRODUCTION
QualiCal is an engineering company
operating in the lime industry since 1996.
The lime industry is an old, niche and close
domain with relatively low margins, where
innovation on proven technologies faces
many obstacles, and where new players with
their new proposal have many challenge to
overcome to establish their role into the
market. Consider that we are speaking of
improvement on assets that have a long-
lifespan and must be operated on
continuous basis for producing a product,
namely “lime”, that is a low cost-high
volume commodity. 1
The market has become more and more
competitive in the latest years, in principal,
due to the fall in demand related to the
economic global crisis of steel merged with
the crisis related to the oil glut. Therefore,
the most efficient technology is needed to
reduce operating expenses by avoiding
unplanned downtimes.
The challenge has been to be competitive by
applying an alternative business model. A
new business model can distinguish the
company from those companies who have
been on the market longer and have not
adapted to the new industrial revolution.
When we started our business, many other
companies had been in the market for
decades, offering products and services in
the lime sector. They had already received
numerous and qualified references from all
over the world. The challenge was clear from
the beginning: we had to be competitive and
the only way was to be different.
Figure 1 Gian Mario Cella, QualiCal Founder and
President
In fact, only an alternative product, service -
or better - an alternative business model
would have given a competitive advantage
to us compared to the other, well
established players.
“Digitalization is transforming the ways
we do business, interact with our
customers and build new business
models, products and services. Our
objective is to help our customers to
improve their operational efficiency,
reduce risks and increase profitability.
Our mission becomes promoting the
QualiCal provides technological solutions,
engineering services and manufacturing
equipment and plants for the lime domain.
1
Stork, Michiel, et al. A competitive and efficient lime industry - Technical Report by Ecofys. www.eula.eu. [Online] July
2014. http://www.eula.eu/file/475/download?token=5lpX8a3h
IIC Journal of Innovation
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