Boosting packaging process efficiencies through after-sales support

Designing and commissioning a machine that tests food or pharmaceutical product packaging is a complex process. Even more is the upkeep and continuous support during the life cycle of the machine.

Bonfiglioli Engineering never stops working alongside customers even when the equipment has been installed and has passed the Site Acceptance Test (SAT), certifying customer acceptance. Euklid Hoxha, Customer Service Manager, spoke to us about Bonfiglioli Engineering’s after-sales services. He explained how punctual and competent interventions by the customer service division supported by continuous improvement and innovation guarantees several important benefits.

What are the responsibilities of Customer Service department in Bonfiglioli Engineering?

Customer service is a strategic department and fundamental to provide timely responses to any need that may arise once the machine has been set up for the clients.

The after-sales department is responsible for:

• Update requests: machines may need to be adapted following a product change or a change in the size of the container being tested. Customer service works actively to identify the customer’s needs and work on them with designers and technicians who implement the necessary changes.
• Routine maintenance schedule: for installed machines, advising and providing an intervention plan of action to the customer and organizing logistics for jobs to be carried out on customer sites.
• Coordination of any exceptional maintenance operations required by customers 
• Collection of work requests if the customer should experience mechanical or software issues.

What additional support does Bonfiglioli Engineering provide to minimize downtime during the production process? 

The Customer Service team offers training for customer employees, ensuring they fully understand how the equipment works to facilitate autonomous plant management. After the phase of the Site Acceptance Test (SAT), Bonfiglioli Engineering’s technicians conduct training for the customer’s operators, with sessions that can last from one to five days, in the classroom and directly on the machine. The same service is offered again following equipment maintenance and revamping. This ensures that operators are exceptionally familiar with the machine they use and can identify and resolve most malfunctions autonomously, to the company’s advantage, minimizing production down time and the number of service calls from external technicians.

What can a customer expect after his machine’s warranty period has terminated?

At Bonfiglioli Engineering, services are always accessible to our customers. Even after the equipment's warranty period has ended, customers can purchase an Annual Service Contract (ASC) that offers all the services provided by the after-sales division. Should they choose to opt out of this service, they can still contact customer service at any time for specific assistance.

What are the principles on which the Customer Service operations are based? How is the team organized?

Quick responses and constant support: That is how our customer service division operates.Diverse teams work together to provide our customers efficient service resolving every problem as quickly as possible. 

This department includes professionals who work remotely — handling organizational aspects, defining annual contracts, managing customer files and maintenance logistics — and technical personnel who work in the companies. Some of these technicians are responsible for maintenance, scheduled work, and troubleshooting specific problems whose causes are already known. If, however, the company experiences a problem whose origin cannot be identified, the intervention is entrusted to specialized technicians who work with the customer to identify and resolve any malfunctions. In this way, the after-sales division can fully address problems our customers experience, dealing with both routine and scheduled activities as well as unexpected issues. 

How is instant support guaranteed to customers?

Customer Service from Bonfiglioli Engineering is now available from Monday to Saturday (6 days a week), with 24-hour assistance, around the globe.  

Customer service interventions are facilitated by technology: when a customer reports any type of malfunction, a remote-control system is immediately triggered. If the customer has activated the EWON device (installed by default on all Bonfiglioli Engineering equipment since 2018), our technicians have direct access to the machine and can perform precise remote diagnostics, identifying the source of the problem, checking the efficiency of the software and acting quickly to resolve the issue. If, however, the customer has not activated EWON, remote diagnostics can be done by connecting an external device to the machine, to which Bonfiglioli Engineering technicians have access. In this case, the system’s activity can be monitored very broadly, though not completely.

What is foreseen in the near future, to help enhance their production efficiencies for customers? 

Bonfiglioli Engineering is working toward constant improvement to provide customers with increasingly advanced services. An internal ticketing platform has been recently implemented, which allows statistics to be compiled on the types of interventions requested by customers, their outcomes and the response methods and times. This set up will enable us to analyze performance, better understand our customers’ needs and identify common issues to improve the effectiveness and timeliness of our services even further.

A device equipped with a webcam that will allow our technicians to perform interventions in live streaming is also under consideration. In this manner, Bonfiglioli Engineering technicians will be able to tell the on-site operator what to do, without having to send a technician to the company, saving time and costs.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the developments in Industry 4.0, which Bonfiglioli Engineering is already implementing, will also have significant impacts on Customer Service. By collecting large amounts of data on machine operation, we will be able to identify problems more quickly and accurately, and to suggest how to intervene before the situation worsens.

Bonfiglioli Engineering is strongly committed to providing our customers with improved service. We know that after-sales assistance is fundamental to allow our customers to resolve any problems and avoid production downtime quickly and effectively.