LKS Next and IKERLAN are forging a partnership to offer digital platforms and services of Industry 4.0 based on Ikerlan Konnekt

• Ikerlan Konnekt is one of the most complete and integrated industrial digitising solutions platforms on the market
• The partnership between these two organisations is offering a comprehensive proposal, covering the whole life cycle, from the technological solution to the provision of digital services to industrial companies

LKS Next and the IKERLAN technology centre have teamed up to offer integrated platforms and digital services to industrial companies. These services are based on the Ikerlan Konnekt platform, which is offering one of the widest-ranging advanced solutions for the digitisation of companies (Industry 4.0). The partnership between member organisations of the MONDRAGON corporate group will enable the digitisation of industrial companies while at the same time extending to new overseas markets.

Ikerlan Konnekt is a broad range of technologically advanced solutions (patents and registrations) developed by the IKERLAN Technology Centre. These solutions are especially relevant to the industrial world and are designed to digitise, improve or implement value-added products and services in Industry 4.0, currently representing one of the most all-inclusive offers in the global environment and in this business segment.

The agreement recently signed by the leaders of IKERLAN and LKS Next provides that professionals of the latter organisation will use and help develop this platform, providing technical support to the user companies. The idea is to ‘industrialise’ the applications developed by the former and thereby accelerate the digitisation of industrial companies, regardless of the sector in which they work.

During the signing of the agreement, held at the IKERLAN facilities, the managing director of the technology centre, Marcelino Caballero, said, “this agreement allows us to combine our solutions from Ikerlan Konnekt with the industrialisation skills and range of services of LKS in order to add more value to the industry”.

For her part, Elena Zárraga, managing director of LKS Next added, “this partnership multiplies the capacities of both organisations with respect to the technological offer and its associated services, and above all, offers a unified proposal to the companies for their digitisation processes”.

The ultimate aim of the collaboration between both MONDRAGON partners is to increase the productivity of the user companies, improving their products and industrial processes from manufacturing itself, to maintenance, logistics and any remaining areas where the new technology could help reduce overall costs.

The idea is for the more than 150 specialist engineers working at IKERLAN to combine the identification of potential clients and the development of new products and industrial solutions 4.0 with the strong position and skills of LKS Next for the maintenance, technical support and development of services on an industrial scale.

Thanks to this partnership, the development of new solutions 4.0 or entry into new geographical markets will be accelerated as it is based on the external structure of LKS NEXT. Similarly, the aim is to foster collaboration between both organisations in new up-and-coming research and technology transfer projects in Industry 4.0.

Broad range of advanced solutions

The partnership was set up with a number of digitisation solutions (own and third parties) adapted to each sector covering all the needs of a factory. These solutions have now been successfully implemented by IKERLAN into a dozen industrial applications in sectors such as capital goods, transport or energy.

Ikerlan Konnekt includes machine monitoring solutions, sensorisation of systems, predictive maintenance or development of platforms and ad-hoc solutions, cloud services, Big Data and analytics or integration of data into management systems.

All these solutions will be covered by a cybersecurity vertical and industrial security. The objective, with all these solutions, is for the manufactured product to be safely related to other products and integrated into the processes and digital platforms of the clients, guaranteeing interoperability and scalability.

About LKS Next

LKS Next -integrated into Mondragon Corporación Cooperativa - is a leading consulting and advanced services organisation, specialising in the industrial sector, but also with broad experience in other sectors such as Administration or Health. LKS Next has more than 550 professionals and a consolidated turnover of more than 36 million euros.

About IKERLAN

IKERLAN is a leading centre in technology transfer and in the contribution of competitive value to the company due, among other things, to the specialisation of its researchers. The organisation, integrated into Mondragon Corporación Cooperativa, offers comprehensive solutions in three large areas: Electronics, Information and Communication Technologies (EICT), Energy and Power Electronics and Advanced Manufacturing. Currently, it has a workforce of around 300 employees.​​