In modern industrial operations, it is rare to find a company that has earn a reputation based solely on the quality of the products or machines it manufactures. These days, an equally important element of any company’s market standing is the level and quality of pre- and post-sales support it can offer.
Much like consumers who have experienced easy and pleasant purchase-and-support experiences from high street stores or online retailers, industrial end users are looking for suppliers who can act as full-solution providers, as opposed to just hardware vendors.
In the food and beverage industry, this heightened level of service is essential, as many companies work using agile and lean principles in order to generate the best possible yield and efficiency.
As a result, extended downtime is not acceptable, which means that these end users depend on their machine suppliers to help maintain maximum uptime.
In a local context, the delivery of in-person support is relatively straightforward, the same is true on a national scale, albeit a little slower for on-site visits, but delivering this level of support internationally becomes more difficult and sometimes attracts longer lead times. It is for this reason that many companies are investing in an international support network.
One such company is Parma, Italy-based Zacmi, a designer, fabricator and installer of tailor-made filling, seaming and processing lines for the international food and beverage industry.
The company supplies high-end equipment to leading multi-national companies in many countries and, as such, has grown a rapid-reaction support network to make sure it can operate as quickly as possible and as locally as possible to its installed machine base.
An example would be its commitment to the Americas, where it has two permanent technicians in the USA and another in Mexico, all of which are supported by a comprehensive centrally located spares facility in Indiana.
Zacmi offers support in nine other core markets too, comprising either technician access or remote interactions; and the global team is backed by Zacmi’s own support team in Parma, which comprises five engineers and 10 technicians who can travel to where local on-site support is not available or additional support is required. In addition to technical assistance, the support team can also help with installation, training spares and upgrades.
Thanks to advanced automation hardware and on-machine digitalization, Zacmi is also able to offer its class-leading Remote Access Service (RAS) programme. Using a secure communication network, engineers from Zacmi can connect to machines – anywhere in the world – to deliver a range of value-added services, including: monitoring and troubleshooting; start-up & process streamlining; uptime optimization; and software patching, updating & enhancement.
The programme also offers Augmented Reality (AR) capabilities – using an app – for connection via smartphone, tablet and even smart glasses.
Using this service, end users can interact virtually with Zacmi’s support team in real time or via photo and video messages. Live training sessions can also be undertaken to help increase Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
Any company with a global footprint, such as ours, has to offer a comprehensive support infrastructure,” explains Martino Chiefari, USA After-Sales Manager, at Zacmi. “We have to deliver peace of mind as well as class-leading technology and help ensure that our customers are operating as efficiently as possible. One of our key selling points is OEE, so we must fulfil this promise with dependable support, no matter where the customer is located.”
