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64 SMT Magazine • March 2017 Headquartered in Eindhoven, Netherlands, Prodrive Technologies is a global provider of world-class technical products, systems, and au- tomation solutions. From servo drives to auto- mated guided vehicles (AGVs), Prodrive builds it, and creating their own factory of the future has been a significant part of their success. At a time when numerous companies around them chose to move their manufactur- ing to lower cost geographies, Prodrive decid- ed instead to develop and integrate automation solutions for the production of their high mix, low to high volume products. With a strong focus on quality, flexibility, and productivity, they have proven to possess a globally competi- tive production environment—located in West- ern Europe. From the moment Prodrive Tech- nologies started with in-house production, they viewed automation in an unconventional way. Working in a dynamic industry and producing over a thousand different products every year demands flexible automation. They believe that critical focus for successful automation must be trained upon the processes and not the prod- ucts. With this philosophy, over a thousand dif- ferent products are being handled by the same automated processes. Creating their own systems that support or improve the production processes is one of Pr- odrive Technologies' core competences. The Pr- odrive Technologies AGVs are a good example of an in-house development, taking care of the intelligent transport of components and prod- ucts. The AGVs are not only used to optimize their internal processes, but are now also avail- able for outside sale. Prodrive Technologies is a fast-growing company with a high diversity in products, which makes flexibility in trans- port essential. After an extensive market re- search, Prodrive Technol- ogies decided to develop their own AGVs that ac- tually provide the flexi- ble and intelligent trans- port needed. Taking care of the transport, the by Rich Heimsch SUPER DRY-TOTECH EU Prodrive Technologies: 4.0 in Action MORE THAN JUST DRY AIR