On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, Omag tells readers of Kosmetica, the leading magazine for the cosmetics industry, about some news related to its packaging machines.
Customer service is another key point. In recent years, in fact, predictive maintenance algorithms have been implemented on packaging machines, augmented reality and, a new development in the last period, is the creation of the My-O reserved area.
This is a totally in-cloud solution accessible through the Omag website, where customers can consult all the documents of their packaging machines and lines, from certificates to the machine manual, from schematics to the spare parts book, organized by content and machine model.
Giovanni Nocita, Omag’s Sales & Marketing Director, tells us this and more.
What has the term “innovation” meant for Omag in recent times?
If we think about cosmetics, important was the recent launch of a vertical intermittent motion packaging machine model with sealing plates. CP is small and compact, price-competitive and capable of bringing to life single-serving sachets, our specialty in cosmetics, with an attractive aesthetic.
In beauty, the end product of our machines is aimed particularly at sampling: this may not be an emblazoned business, but the industry demand is for sachets with an attractive exterior. To high performance, the CP series also combines the features of simplicity and intuitive operation.
How important, in the relationship with cosmetics, is your expertise in pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals?
First of all, it should be remembered that these industies represent the most relevant parts of our business volume, along with food, while beauty is to date a niche, in which we believe a lot and which we intend to cultivate and grow.
However, these are fields that, with increasing frequency, intersect and influence each other. Pharma and nutraceuticals have allowed us to enhance the flexibility of Omag and its achievements. And from the intermingling of the various sectors, from the rise of pharma-cosmetics or cosmeceuticals, we count on drawing important results.
Still thinking about cosmetics, does your offering also consist of complete lines?
Exactly. Our customers can decide to combine packaging machines with AI46 family cartoning machines to create complete production processes of sachets in pre-glued cartons. In fact, one of the main innovations in our offer concerns precisely secondary packaging: from more than a year we have the ability to be suppliers of complete packaging lines, from primary to secondary.
Also in the cosmetic field, we are able to satisfy those players who are looking for solutions suitable for multiple product types: from liquids and semi-liquids to powders and from gels to micro-pellets and granulates. Our offer consists exclusively of technologies designed, manufactured, assembled and tested by us, thus entirely made in Italy. The credit goes in large part to the three factories started up, each with its own prerogatives, in the immediate vicinity of the Gradara headquarter.
How have you declined the digital philosophy typical of Industry 4.0 in your daily activities?
I would say that in this aspect a key step forward has been the development of the brand new My-O portal. It is dedicated to registered customers, who can access a restricted area where they can find information on Omag machines installed in their plants to obtain manuals and configurations, service and spare parts, and 3D overviews of the systems. We are, in addition, working to enhance the portal with new solutions to enable users to analyze and check in real time the performance of the machines themselves and the status of maintenance contracts. This is an innovation directed at the service area and, therefore, at customer support, with the possibility for our technicians to carry out interventions from
remote through a “digital twin.”
Noteworthy is the commitment with which you curate internal training: how do you carry it out?
For years, our training initiatives have been multi-layered, targeting both employees and the board. We are a team with shared goals, so we want to give all team members the tools they need to be able to work knowledgeably and independently. Such, according to Omag, is the recipe for achieving ambitious goals.
We are inevitably interested in growing everyone’s skills: we work on self-awareness, as well as on the specific skills of each department and each internal function.