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Machines Italia XVI: Rethinking the Future - Transforming Manufacturing for Success
This issue of Machines Italia covers a host
of issues affecting the global manufacturing
industry, with a focus on North America. A
common thread across all the articles is
the growing importance of strong partners,
especially considering the recent supply chain
disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Italian companies have the experience and
ingenuity to ensure success and enable their
North American partners to excel.
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Machines Italia Vol. XV: Transforming how we work, one machine at a time
By helping to restore the global economy after the crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic and its related economic damage, Italian machine builders are on the leading edge of a revitalization, designing and building new machines that are helping manufacturers, particularly in North America, produce more products, of better quality, with less waste and using fewer resources. Major challenges still lie ahead, particularly a shortage of skilled workers and a still fractious supply chain. Increased conflict between major regions of the world, and still-high energy prices and inflation continue as significant barriers to any return to pre-Covid economic conditions.
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Machines Italia Vol. XIV: Coping with the Certainty of Uncertain Times 2022
Most of us would agree that the last two years have been difficult and that the path forward often seems uncertain. For instance, the world may have recovered from the worst of COVID-19, but the possibility of future variants remains. With that is a global economy—which suffered severely in the face of pandemic-related shutdowns and their ensuing disruption—that has only recently shown signs of recovery. And yet, the industry moves forward, just as it always has. Manufacturing companies in Italy and elsewhere continue to develop innovative products. Machine shops make ever-more accurate parts, textile producers crank out clothing by the cargo load, construction equipment becomes more powerful, and machinery of all kinds grows smarter and more interconnected. Uncertainty aside, it’s genuinely a great time to be in manufacturing. The 2022 Machines Italia magazine covers all this and more. Within its pages, you will read the story of a shoemaker who became a leading machinery dealer. You’ll learn about a spacecraft that failed soon after launch (and how 3D printing can prevent that unfortunate event), why smart tractors are the best tractors, and why the words “Made in Italy” are all that matter to many equipment buyers. As for future uncertainty, forget about it. All will be well, fellow manufacturers. Benvenuti!
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Machines Italia Magazine Vol. XIII: Next Generation Manufacturing
Italy Supports Smart Manufacturing for The Next Generation
Manufacturers do not have the luxury of stopping their business, even in the midst of a once-in-a-generation pandemic like the current one caused by the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19). Many of the trends that were prevalent before the outbreak are now accelerating, especially automation and using data in unprecedented ways. Training workers also remains keenly important. In what follows, we’ll show how solutions provided by Italian companies are helping suppliers worldwide, including in North America, to cope with the crisis brought around by the pandemic and with old challenges alike. Italian automation expertise already enables companies to make very advanced products, such as for instance high-quality ceramics or high technology rocket parts cut from lasers, by supplying entire production lines or single key pieces of automated equipment. We invite you to thoroughly read this issue of Machines Italia. You will gain the sort of detailed information and insights that may serve to improve and expand your manufacturing business.
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Machines Italia Volume XII - Manufacturing: A Fast, Flexible & Efficient Future
Italy Front and Center in the Move to Smart Manufacturing
From consumer products to heavy machinery, technology provided by Italian companies is proving beneficial for North American manufacturers
The impact of smart manufacturing is being felt far and wide—benefitting industries as diverse as consumer products and heavy machinery. Nothing short of revolutionary, the vast improvements in manufacturing involve mastering automation, big data, and robotics, in particular. Front and center in this new industrial revolution is manufacturing technology provided by Italian companies. In this edition of Machines Italia Magazine, we provide a few relevant examples, looking at specific company stories, while taking also a look at what is going on in some key industrial sectors.
Take the manufacturing of tile-making machinery. Just as mass customization was starting to take hold, consumer products specialists at one of the leading Italian companies created a digital single-pass inkjet printing process that can make a ceramic surface appear to be stone, rusted metal, nature’s most precious marbles or whatever a customer envisions. The process can even produce a surface with the look and feel of wood and its natural vein. Other Italian companies are helping North American customers bond fibers for everything from filtration to footwear, increase textile dye house productivity, and successfully process stemware.
Makers of heavy machinery are getting smarter and more nimble, too, thanks to advances in sensors, processors and information networks. Their strength also relies on endless integration opportunities. The CEO of a well-known stone processing company in Arizona describes its factories as being “Italian manufactured”. Indeed, they are mostly equipped with loader-unloaders, bridge saws, high-speed gang saws, roller benches, robotics, gantry cranes and dryers coming from the peninsula.
Savings in energy are also important drivers. An Italian plastics processing manufacturer invented a product that lets makers of polyethylene terephthalate preforms cut energy use to dry resin by more than 50%. Another area where new processes and products can reduce costs is waste. This has been the case for several technologies developed by Italian glass manufacturing machinery companies, affording them a renewed competitive edge.
Finally, speed and efficiency are top of mind for everyone in manufacturing today. Robotics is one of the key tools to achieve them. We review several examples of solutions offered to North American manufacturers in this area by established and new Italian suppliers.
Not to be forgotten, all of these advancements proceed from a very robust research and development background, which relies on several world-class universities and polytechnics and on the commitment of individual companies to investing in in-house innovation. Recent policies adopted by the Italian Government, which incentivize the use of new technologies, have boosted attention and activities in this area.
Success has come not only because of innovation but also on the wings of investments in a stronger presence on the market. Italian companies have opened workshops, warehouses, office spaces and participated in trade fairs and conventions, creating jobs and contributing to the development of a stronger manufacturing-oriented economy here in North America. The Italian Trade Agency is honored to have been part of this process, which exemplifies in a very practical and effective way the importance of boosting economic links between countries and industries.
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Machines Italia Magazine Volume XI - Digital Technologies
Machines Italia Volume XI shows how Italian companies are using smart manufacturing strategies to increase productivity and efficiency. Manufacturing continues to look ahead. It has to - the demand to make products better and faster never stops. As a result, there is no time to dwell on yesterday's accomplishments. Manufacturing technology provided by Italian companies makes a difference. This issue examines the broad impact Italy has on the manufacturing scene and explains how Italian companies are making a difference.
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Machines Italia Magazine Volume X - Flexible Solutions in Manufacturing
This issue of Machines Italia magazine, is our 10th anniversary issue, featuring how Italian technology providers, with their creative and flexible solutions, are helping North American companies profitably bring manufacturing work back home here to NAFTA. Italy has left its imprint around the world – with its own culture of family, food, arts, architecture, music, education, innovation and discovery. This is also true in manufacturing, where Italy’s exceptional skill in building things and solving industrial problems with creativity and practical research is proudly on display. As a new era of advanced manufacturing continues to unfold, it’s no surprise that manufacturers in the United States, Mexico and Canada continue to find Italian technology providers key partners in rethinking how they build their goods at a high quality, with a low cost and a flexible approach. This is true whether manufacturers are processing pasta and salami; moving earth to harvest an increasing number of organic foods; producing colorful eye-catching packaging; weaving intricate luxury fabrics; or delivering premium plastics, ceramics, glass and marble. Machines Italia partners, in fact, provided $3.5 billion in machines, equipment and other technologies to the United States in 2014, up from just $2.9 billion in 2011.
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Machines Italia Volume IX - Exploring the New World of Advanced Manufacturing
Whether manufacturers are building critical parts for planes, heavy equipment or cars, or producing custom yarns or chocolates, companies here are continuing to bring home the manufacturing work they once sent overseas. Impressive ly, they are making this shift while remaining competitive and growing their businesses profitably.
How are they doing this? By embracing a new wave of highly productive, and fast-changing, advanced manufacturing technologies. These tools do more work faster, with incredible precision, and offer digital tracking and analysis tools like never before.
Italian companies, of course, play a big role in researching, developing and bringing to market these advanced manufacturing tools and strategies, many of which are enabled by innovative software, automation and thinking.
In this issue of Machines Italia, we take a closer look at trends in the North American manufacturing market and tell the stories of companies using premium Italian technology to become more competitive and profitable. These stories demonstrate that investments in sophisticated, premium Italian manufacturing equipment and tools are paying off.
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Machinery Performance Benchmarks
The Machinery Performance Benchmarks study offers insight on the particular aspects of machinery suppliers that make them a world-class brand. The study provides a snapshot of the performance of current machinery and technology used by end-user manufacturers, helping you to understand and evaluate where they are in relation to the standards described in the study.
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Bridging Innovation to New Strategies
Globalization has deeply changed the manufacturing landscape, especially in the most industrialized of nations. Rising costs, rapid growth of emerging economies and dramatic improvements in logistics have revolutionized marketplaces. Simultaneously, extreme environmental pressures, large-scale economic disruptions and technologically amplified human expression are combining to create what may seem like an unfamiliar landscape. In this edition of Machines Italia, we illustrate and explore solutions to some of the problems that manufacturing faces today and will continue to face tomorrow. We present these articles with the perspective of partnership between North American and Italian companies.
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Partners In Growth
Now that the North American economy is recovering, many manufacturers did not rest dur ing the Recession. They streamlined operations, invested in new technology, and continued to build strong relationships with customers and suppliers. Their Italian industrial machinery and equipment partners were working alongside them; and now, these North American manufacturers are reaping exponential benefits as sales rebound.
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Expecting More Value From Industrial Equipment Manufacturers
The Expecting More Value From Industrial Equipment Manufacturers study refers to the contribution of the factors of production (customer-focused innovation, human capital management, process improvement and supply chain management) to raising the value of a product and corresponds to the incomes received by the owners of these factors.
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Machines Italia Volume 8
The latest issue of Machines Italia examines how global manufacturers can benefit from sustainable manufac- turing practices, as promoted and supported by Italian machinery makers. With the world of business and industry facing challenges on every front, we have attempted to present a comprehensive array of topics, and we thank you for your interest in these diverse articles. Sustainable manufacturing encompasses a variety of activities andassets, from green manufacturing practices, "green" machines and renewable energy sources, to a renewed emphasis on recyclable technologies and tactics. The responsible company-seeking to reduce its carbon footprint and maximize energy savings-needs to understand which options will produce the greatest green benefit. With the influx of high-quality Italian machinery that is intentionally engi- neered to provide green benefits, there is a stunning variety of choices available to the North American market.
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Machines Italia: Trends in Manufacturing Best Practices
NAFTA manufacturers have faced many challenges over the past decade. And Machines Italia has worked to help you improve and leverage your industrial capabilities amid these changing-and often trying-conditions by offering a series of manufacturing best practices & trends to help you.
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Italian Innovation: A Manufacturing Renaissance
Machines Italia 2004 explores the creativity, flexibility, and innovation of machine manufacturing in Italy. With famous names such as Ferrari and Lamborghini in the auto industry, and Prada and Dolce & Gabbana in the fashion world, Italian brands have long been associated with design and innovation. One will find stories filled with the latest news and insightful features that detail the doings of more than 14 industrial machinery manufacturing sectors and 10,000 companies. The main cover story digs into the rich history of Italian innovations. For centuries, Italian innovators like Da Vinci, Galileo and Marconi have dramatically changed the world in which we live. The tradition of creative excellence they embody lives on through today's Italian manufacturers.
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Machines Italia Magazine 2009
Creative solutions for sustainable manufacturing Manufacturing industries relay the message that quality and collabo- ration are key components of success.The latest issue of Machines Italia exam- ines successful business practices both within Italy and North America. Italian technology is thecentral theme of Machines Italia, illustrating how local manufacturers here employ Italian innovation to achieve sustainable, respon- sible production solutions.Initially, we look at the need to collabo- rate, part of every company's road to suc- cess. Italian companies are environmentally aware (green), efficiently productive (lean) and committed to the responsible use of resources (sustainable). These examples are illustrated through the articles published in this issue.
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Machines Italia Magazine Spring 2010
The latest issue of Machines Italia examines how global manufacturers can benefit from sustainable manufac- turing practices, as promoted and supported by Italian machinery makers.
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The Italian Edge: Technology For Sustainability
The Italian Trade Commission (ITC) presents the book "The Italian Edge: Technology for Sustainability." The English-language publication was created by the Italian Trade Commission's Area Beni Strumentali (Capital Goods Division) and published by the Chicago Office of the Italian Trade Commission based on a complex outline of Italian companies representing excellence in their sectors, developed and realized by journalists of the principal Italian financial newspaper IlSole24Ore and edited by Novalab.
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Machines Italia Magazine 2005
Design is Italy's trademark, most visible in the consumer world where designer labels tend to have Italian names. What may be less evident to many (but what world class manufacturers know) is that Italian leadership in design extends to equipment and mach