Huawei Technologies Croatia organized a visit to the 5G European Supply Chain Logistics Center (ESC) in Hungary for students who successfully completed this year’s Seeds for the Future program, which was launched in Croatia in 2019 based on a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation between Huawei and the Central State Office for the Development of the Digital Society.
During the Seeds for the Future educational program, students had the opportunity to learn about advanced technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing, and to see how things work in practice at the logistics center. The ESC was launched in 2021 as the first European industrial use of a private 5G network in a real environment and is the largest such facility outside of China. The center supplies Huawei products to over 50 countries and employs more than 2,000 people.
The State Secretary in the Central State Office for the Development of the Digital Society, Bernard Gršić, visited the center along with the students.
– Cooperation between the Republic of Croatia and the People’s Republic of China began back in 2019 when a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with Huawei Technologies for cooperation within the education and training program focused on industry, innovation, and technology ‘Seeds for the Future’. This is the fourth generation of selected scholarship holders from Croatia who have become part of a global scholarship and student exchange initiative involving over a hundred countries worldwide.
By participating in this program, 29 students had the opportunity to gain unique insights into research and development of new technologies firsthand. The environment in which they acquired knowledge and experience was multicultural, with special attention focused on promoting intercultural digital skills and social responsibility and inclusion. The entire education was rounded off with a visit to the 5G European Supply Chain Logistics Center (ESC) in Hungary, where students could see live what the future looks like – said Gršić.
The digital transformation of the ESC facility was introduced in a way that Industry 4.0 solutions support the logistics and manufacturing operations of the supply center. After successful investments in digitalization, self-driving transport vehicles combined with image processing driven by augmented reality artificial intelligence help daily in logistics, manufacturing, and quality control processes.
With the introduction of technological development, the efficiency of the facility, which processes between 50,000 and 60,000 shipments per month, has increased by more than 30-40 percent, and delays are almost nonexistent thanks to cloud and 5G technology that enables fast data transfer. Forklifts in the logistics department are connected to the server via the 5G network, and images from their cameras are transmitted to a central computer that calculates their path so they can operate autonomously.
By using these vehicles, the handling process is fully automated from arrival to storage, as well as from collecting and transporting parts to assembly locations.
Students were guided through the factory by Tamas Boday, Director of Solutions at Huawei.
– Huawei, as a global leader in the ICT industry, is focused on developing the entire industry for the future, so our colleagues in research and development work daily to improve the latest technologies. We are very pleased that students who attended Seeds for the Future in Croatia visited the ESC. The center represents the practical use of 5G technology in the Industry 4.0 model, which brings extraordinary results. We sincerely hope that students will gain insights into the manufacturing and logistics processes of the future through this visit – said Boday.
Huawei, as a leading global provider of infrastructure and smart devices in information and communication technology (ICT), is actively working on technological innovations in the field of 5G, cloud, and artificial intelligence, as well as developing ICT talents worldwide by launching global educational programs such as Seeds for the Future.
