Page 26 - Machines Italia Vol. XIII Next Generation Manufacturing

COVID-19
relationship based on service. Second, attention and care for the user. Third, reliability on multiple levels of staff, product and com- pany. And fourth, deep awareness of supporting the excellence of our company and that of the end customer.”
The SURE project gives customers global access 24/7 to the skills of IMS’s highly qualified service team. And as Zucchelli put it, “remote assistance is an essential tool for companies eager to avoid exposing themselves to needless production risks. Provid-
Pietropaolo is not all doom and gloom however, as he encourages his members to manage the “post-pandemic stage” with “new pro- duction paradigms” and to embrace different thinking. First, he said, companies need to explore making some of the new approaches that emerged during the lockdown permanent. “In fact, the re-launch of competitiveness for companies in this sector must necessarily entail automation—where it has not yet occurred—of their departments,” he said. “A recovery is, in fact, strictly tied to safeguarding worker health,
Petratto’s manufacturing line for disposable, eco-friendly paper napkin holder bags and napkins.
meaning eliminating all the risks connect- ed with high-intensity production.”
He believes this will inevitably make manufacturing more robotized. Another crucial aspect concerns logistics. Due to problems with shipments—which are gradually being solved with the uptake in work in different areas of the world—he notes many companies are revising how their spaces are organized. They are also making agreements with shippers to store machinery that cannot be delivered yet in order to free up and make operative assembly lines that otherwise would not work on new orders.
He added that companies also need to consider the problem of business travel, including service technicians. He
ing assistance to solve problems remotely lets our customers re- solve critical problems as they emerge, in record time and at lower costs.” Such assistance includes real-time help in optimizing ma- chines, and problem diagnosis through a telephone help desk or more sophisticated options like augmented reality. “For example,” said Zucchelli, “using smart glasses we can make diagnoses, give instructions, and suggest solutions remotely, looking at the machine through our customer’s eyes. This delivers great savings in terms of time as well as human and economic resources. Our customers need no special skills or equipment and if there are language barri- ers, an integrated translation system is there to help.”
It’s not all remote though. IMS also has a support center in Hamil- ton, N.J., with a comprehensive stock of critical parts in a 2,000-sq.-ft. warehouse, in-house training, and a field service team.
Planning for a manufacturing recovery
While Italian companies are leaders in 3D printing, they also domi- nate the worldwide market for automated machines that quarry and process natural stone, and the U.S. is their biggest market. But like every industrial sector, it’s facing the challenges of investment due to the pandemic. That’s according to Pasqualino Pietropaolo, communi- cation manager for CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE—the Ital- ian Association of Producers and Processors of Marbles, Granites and Natural Stones (Milan, Italy, www.assomarmomacchine.com).
pointed to the benefits of Industry 4.0 concepts in managing manu- facturing remotely, and “utilizing remote working and remote assis- tance for the installation and maintenance of customers’ production lines and machinery throughout the world.” Among the various new services that companies are developing is the creation of websites from which customers can purchase spare parts or consumables di- rectly online. “[They can also] gain access to all user manuals for ma- chines, lines or installations, keeping them always updated,” he said.
In general, Pietropaolo emphasized that, in many cases, the post- COVID-19 recovery is “an important opportunity for Italian makers of stone-working technologies to help their customers around the world with innovative Industrial Internet solutions, developed in re- cent years through important research and development work in the context of IT Engineering and Digital Industrial Design. Computeriz- ing and adopting Augmented Reality tools are challenges that Italian companies were able to meet even before the health emergency, fostering ever more vanguard manufacturing.” Pietropaolo noted that the image and reputation of techno-stone products Made in Italy, is being successfully upheld as Italian manufacturers’ are using their know how to help their customers manage their investments in pro- duction lines easily and with continuity.
From hygiene masks to 3D printing, from printing labels to stone, Italian companies are helping myriad industries adjust to the COVID-19 crisis, and the world beyond.
26 Volume XIII | www.machinesitalia.org