Automation Service: The Brescian Company’s Circular Economy Model Aiming at America – Forbes
Automation Service on Forbes.
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The Brescian company giving a new lease of life to technological scrap
Gabriele Marchina and Gloriana Iarrera are an engineer and lawyer respectively, but especially a husband and wife who became the founding partners of a company. So came about Automation Service fifteen years ago, from these two recent graduates from the class of 74 in their early 30s who decided to ride on the crest of a wave. Or, better said, who decided to lead the tsunami that we now know as the circular economy. Gabriele’s passion for high tech had him quickly set his expectations on a well-defined sector, then in its early days: the recovery of electronic parts and circuit boards from complex CNC machinery and robots.
The first steps of what is now an international company for all intents and purposes took place somewhere which instantly makes you think of the stories of the most successful entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley: a garage. “We didn’t have capital behind us: only our degrees and minds full of dreams. We wanted to found our company with the sole wish of leaving a better world for future generations and for our three beautiful daughters,” Gabriele recalls. ""That is why we focused on the circular economy, an economic matrix that can replace growth models centred on a linear vision, and which has been our DNA from the outset. We have always been attracted by everything that could be put back to use and that was considered scrap by the majority. Of course it wasn't easy in the beginning, but, in recent years, we have become Italian leaders in assistance and reconditioning for Fanuc, Mitsubishi and Siemens systems, with a portfolio that currently stands at around 3800 companies. Our business model is founded on recovering the immense value of technological waste, transforming products into a service and ensuring efficiency for our customers who benefit throughout their value chains. Our customers, who are mainly active in the automotive, manufacturing and aerospace industries, cannot afford machine downtime even at 3 a.m. or on Christmas Day. Their problems must be turned into solutions.”
Click on automationservice.biz to understand just how important speed and timely service are for Marchina, which translate into the immediate restarting of production processes, the stoppage of which can cost as much as tens of thousands of euros per hour. A relentless comparison between Automation Service and its competitors’ services can be found on the home page: while the market average for emergency repairs is 5-7 days, everything is resolved in 3-4 days with Automation Service, and the delivery time for reconditioned parts drops to 1-2 days against 6-7 days for competitors. Time is money, as they say, which suddenly turned into an emergency in January 2020. With the outbreak of the pandemic and the threat of the brakes being hit on production lines all around the world, instead of waiting or worrying, Gabriele and Gloriana decided to step on the gas and look beyond such an immense obstacle. “We shared our vision with two friends who were both international managers to help us see our future with new eyes during that period of such obvious transition. They accepted the challenge and were instrumental in defining our new international business model during the first few weeks of the health emergency. Mauro Falaschi, an economist with extensive experience in developing start-ups in America, played an active and decisive role through the adoption of business models and strategies oriented around the circular economy to promote innovative products linked to new services with an advanced franchising model for industrial goods. Marco Gamba, a tax adviser, redesigned the internal processes, the management architecture, and the administrative and tax monitoring. The development process and enormous R&D effort led to the founding of a start-up, J.G. Robotics, with which we have developed an international patent based on voice-based digital technologies that can further push our partners’ entire value chains towards the adoption of digital models linked to the circular economy when used in connection with Industry 4.0, such as robotics, 3D printing, the Internet of Things and big data. These technologies open up new innovative spaces for more sustainable design and manufacturing, as well as for processes that make it possible to trace resource consumption and product use. For this purpose, we are actively collaborating with the University of Brescia by financing scholarships for young engineers whose theses are on artificial intelligence and new technologies.”
The brand’s international growth has not stopped in this context of innovation. “Our distribution partners have allowed us to enter the markets in Spain, Germany, the UK, Portugal, Austria, France and Switzerland. By optimising all our internal processes shaped on the new business model over the course of the last two years, which have been very difficult for everyone, we have grown on average by double figures, not just in turnover but also in EBITDA.” Also nearing completion is a new logistics, reconditioning and service centre in Northern Europe to support all European distributors and customers. Signs that they could expand overseas came from important economic observers, including dedicated ESG (environmental, social and governance) investment funds, which are highly specialised in the companies driving the transition to a low-carbon economy. One example is ESGLUX led by Tamara Caiani, which helped the company understand how to make the best use of the new financial instruments linked to the sustainable economy by starting a path of international ESG rating certification focused mainly on strengthening governance, in addition to the ISOs already obtained on quality systems (9001), occupational health and safety (45001), and environmental management (14001).
They also set up Automation Service Mexico in 2020 thanks to the support of local institutions and top-level entrepreneurs such as Lorenzo Vianello, the recently re-elected president of the Italian-Mexican Chamber of Commerce, and Mauricio Kuri Slim, a local tycoon. ""For us, Mexico is a market worth at least 15 times Italy and it was conceived as the logistical hub for customer service for the whole of North America. We are planning to open Automation Service USA by 2021, supported by local partners and a group of highly experienced managers who will be led by Giuseppe Greco, the former Lamborghini president in the transition to the Audi group, with previous top positions at Fiat Canada, USA and Venezuela, and former president of Ferrari USA.”"