Innovating by anticipating the times and bringing to customers solutions
that are unprecedented, doing things that others do not do: this is the
identity manifesto of the company that exports from the Bolognese hinterland in
90% of cases and is characterised by 89 active patents, allocating 5% of its turnover to R&D.
Giampaolo Colletti interviews Massimo Franzaroli, president and CEO of Pulsar for FARE INSIEME
di Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Photocredit: Giacomo Maestri e Francesca Aufiero
There are companies that help other companies to work better.
They do it with advanced technologies, integrated professional skills and a lot
of research and development. This is the story of Pulsar Engineering, engaged
in the production of automatic machines and transport systems. We are located
in Castel Maggiore, a town of twenty thousand souls, nine kilometres north of
Bologna. This reality was born here in 1989 and immediately decided to try to
design the future, allocating 5% of its turnover to R&D. Today
Pulsar is characterised by 89 active national and international patents. «We
started in 1998 when we realised we had something that was truly innovative. We
were the first to file patents that were focused on the software for the
integration of automatic machines, which, when connected to the network,
regulated the production speed to optimise it», says Massimo Franzaroli,
president and CEO of Pulsar.
Search of value. A global company by
definition. And the numbers show it, with 90% of volumes destined for foreign
countries and two branch offices in the United States and China. But to look
beyond national borders, you have to bet on human capital. And it is no
coincidence that the first explicit value is people first. «The individual is crucial for a company based on what
is only foreseen and its value is manifested by curiosity. Curious people are
those who learn the most and want to do more. Here each person doesn't have a
job role, which is thus always the same, but we work in rotation and therefore
we are used to changes and forced to get involved and grow professionally. This
company was born as a technical office of mechanical design for third parties
and therefore knowing the customer has always been fundamental. Then among the
values there is certainly that of sustainability, which is expressed in the
reduction of energy consumption, in the lower environmental impact and in the
solutions of new materials born from the recycling of those consumed»,
explains Franzaroli.
Innovating by anticipating the times to bring to customers solutions
that are unprecedented, doing things that others do not do: this is the
identity manifesto of Pulsar, which today focuses on the safety and ergonomics
of machines, but also on the digital technologies. The company oversees the
tissue, packaging and automation sector, offering customised solutions based on
customer requests. «We have gone through forty years of automation. What
customers are asking for today is to have smart automations, i.e. those that
reduce the operator's fatigue, but also his/her constant presence. On the other
hand, it is in our DNA to build tailor-made clothes, anticipating the needs and
trying to identify the future challenges», says Franzaroli. For Pulsar, all this
has always meant visiting factories, understanding the potential difficulties,
setting up technical solutions and providing believable and measurable
solutions. Today, however, all of this is easier said than done. Because the
emergency of the pandemic has rewritten the relationship between the company
and the customer. If before we travelled a lot, going to every corner of the
world to start the machines, in the time suspended between lockdowns and
restrictions, everything has become e-smart, with the remote start-up of the
systems.
Anticipating the future. Pulsar has also filed international patents, from Japan to North
America. A broader vision that has allowed the company to be a pioneer in some
important steps of the process of innovation: it was among the first to deal
with efficiency through software traceability to understand where the
disturbances to the production capacities actually happened. And it was among
the first to create robotic systems for packaging. «From the very beginning we
had a challenging and futuristic idea of production. But a future that is
already present because this technology comes to the rescue of what concerns
e-commerce»,
explains Franzaroli. To track the warehouse, to oversee logistics and
intralogistics within the factories, to rethink the journey of the product. It
is a complex job to bring products to the shelves of large retailers. Even more
so after the emergency of the pandemic, which has triggered new needs. Because
today the action of buying on the internet forces factories to experience a
revolution that becomes necessary: no longer the need of department stores, but
the need of a production system to process the order on the day it arrives and
deliver it the following day. So we need to leave the concept of automatic
machine to move towards a modular robotic system that can be adapted to
different types of products. «The challenge is to be able to have slower flexible
lines, but with a response time that is more consistent with the needs of the
market. In this way, stocks are reduced, production is made with more
flexibility and we pass from purely quantitative evaluations to more
qualitative dynamics of the management of goods», explains Franzaroli. Today
we think of smart factories, with an
integrated and robotic system of the entire production process, from the entry
of the raw material to the exit of the finished product. On the other hand, by
measuring consumption, you save money. «We do a lot of mechanics and we realised
that our software, by managing the speed on the lines, saved up to 20% more
with the same service. Today we are working on the transformation of the smart
factories to make lines more flexible, simpler, more integrated, more
transparent»,
says Franzaroli. Then there is the challenge that goes beyond sustainable
mobility with an e-bike that becomes a trike: it's called Trac3 and it is a
mountain bike that allows everyone to move on any surface with maximum safety
and without sacrificing fun and dynamism. The vehicle is equipped with two steered
wheels in the front head, instead of one. This feature provides three contact
zones with the ground, in contrast to the usual two wheels. Once again the
future belongs to those who ride fast.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
Leggi le altre interviste
