The rail industry in Europe and the world is looking at a bright future, which will return Serbia to the maps of large, important industrial states, thanks to the unique cluster project – MIND Park in Sobovica, near Kragujevac.
The eKapija team has visited MIND Park, a large and important industrial construction site in this part of Serbia, especially Sumadija, where the first production halls for companies within MIND are already operating. In an exclusive story, we present the plans for the development of this “small” industrial wonder in the heart of Sumadija. Among the fertile farming land, a high-tech and rail industry pioneer in this part of the world is growing, already cooperating with the most important companies. Thanks to the innovative methods and the relation toward the employees, which is not based on work-intensive production, MIND Park has become one of the most popular places for work among the people of Kragujevac and the places in the area – Topola, Smederevska Palanka and other places where the knowledge of rail and automotive industry has been fostered and skilfully upgraded for a whole century.
The park will take up slightly over 150 hectares and all the important players in the sector of production of rail vehicles will be located in that area. The construction of the park is divided into several segments. In the first phase of the construction, which is in progress, the infrastructure and the side features for about 3,500 employees have been designed. At MIND Group and two
Siemens factories, one within MIND Park and the other in the old location, two kilometers away, more than 1,200 people are employed.
MIND Group stands for Milanovic Industries Group, founded by Bratislav Milanovic. The idea about forming MIND Park dates back to 2017, and what initiated the focusing on shaping this concept was the offer of Siemens AG to take over Milanovic Inzenjering, then owned by Bratislav Milanovic.
Kragujevac and its area, which relied on the car industry for decades, now concentrate on the rail sector. Everything we know about the current trends in the European and global economy tells us that trams from MIND Park will succeed where Yugo couldn't in its time and find a secure place in the global market.
– Globally, the rail vehicle industry is an industry with a tendency of constant growth – Darko Djoric, the CEO of Mind Group, says for eKapija. For example, there's a tendency in Europe to have shorter flights, partly for ecological reasons too, replaced with rail lines, as advantage is given to rail transport everywhere.
It's a paradox that the rail system is particularly undeveloped in Sumadija. Kragujevac used to plan trolleys in its time, not trams. But MIND Park's ambitions are not local and do not stop at rail systems.
– This year, we are building at least another three production halls for suppliers in the rail vehicle industry. We do not limit ourselves to this area, but target all the segments in the metal processing industry. In the future, we want to focus on the aviation industry, as about 80% of the processes and procedures are similar to those in the rail industry – says Marion Georgi, Business Development & Shared Services Manager at MIND Park.
CEO Djordjevic adds that MIND Industries Group is having intensive negotiations with several companies about the production of aircraft components.
– One of the rail R&D projects we are carrying out is the process of friction welding, which is also used in the air industry.
The state-of-the-art infrastructure of MIND Park aims to enable technical solutions at the level of Industry 4.0. A traditional industry, such as the rail industry, is brought into the Fourth Industrial Revolution though an integration of modern information systems and technologies with the production and processes.
– The production of Siemens trams is expected to begin in March – says Darko Djoric. – The capacity of the facility is 80 trams (320 rail cars) a year, and the first delivery is to go to Bremen. MIND Park will manufacture finished products, and the idea is to unify the production processes for as many parts of a rail car as possible. The trams will be given the final layer of coating at our facility, and this sort of a facility is something Serbia has not seen yet and is completely different from the coating facilities in the automotive industry.