Industrial Machinery for Packaging: Moving the Needle in the IoT Customer Journey and Business Model

Discover more about how IMA builds new value for themselves and their customers using IIoT

IMA GROUP is a leading player in IoT in packaging industry. Using PTC’s Service Optimization Solutions, they are presenting a major paradigm shift in the IoT customer journey and business model. Instead of selling standalone applications, they sell high-value-added services, where a service can be a state-of-the-art predictive maintenance algorithm or a real-time monitoring service.  

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Welcome to Speaking of Service, the podcast that uncovers practical ways to grow service, revenue control costs and improve customer satisfaction. If you're looking to innovate, gain a competitive edge, or just learn about the latest service trends, you've come to the right place. In this episode, Chris Wolff has the pleasure to sit with Martina Stefanon on business development manager at ArmorGroup Italy to talk about their Iot customer journey and business model. A state of the art, predictive maintenance and real time monitoring service. I can't wait for you to meet my guest. Martina Stefanon on as a visionary who created some disruption at Live Works. When we're talking about providing algorithms as a service. She's a member of the leadership team at IMA Group, which is a very proud Italian company. It's been in business for decades, truly global organization and who manufactures complex machines used by both pharma companies, as well as companies who package coffee and tea. Martina had the idea as part of IMA Digital to work hand in hand with their most sophisticated customers in a sandbox environment that allowed them to bring the expertise of the customer in their industry. With with IMA Group's digital expertise and understanding of their machines to create couture algorithms that would set that business apart, differentiating them and creating new revenue streams. At the same time, they took the learnings and the IP from those sandbox engagements and created, if we're familiar with an app store, what she calls an Algo Mart or a marketplace for algorithms where less sophisticated customers with maybe not the same level of budget could source algorithms as a service and put those to work in less sophisticated environments. Martinez, a visionary. She spoke again at Live Works this year. I know you'll want to go see a replay of her sessions, but for now, join me in welcoming Martina. Thank you for joining me here at Speaking of Service. Tell me a little bit about yourself and the IMA group. Okay. Well, first of all, thanks to you for inviting me. It's a real pleasure. I am Martina Stefanon, I'm Business Development Manager IMA Digital of IMA Group. IMA group is a leading machine Manufac chair in nearly all industries from pharma, coffee, tea, food, tobacco. So whatever you can think of. Basically, and my role at IMA is to support all companies and all divisions of the group, both from a technically and from a sales point of view regarding digital tools, services, products, whatever we develop in IMA. Moreover, I have also second role, which is product manager of our Email Sentinel platform, which is a platform through which we deliver all data driven services. So tell me more about those data driven services. I know that you started with this as a project and had a vision for that, but tell me about the services you deliver and and about your customers. Yeah, well, that's a very challenging kind of services, so it reflects my passion for innovative services and sometimes even disruptive ones, which is a lot of fun challenge, but fun as well. Well, we started actually back in 2016 already, so with the goal to develop services, so to be more and more also a service company, so not only a leading machine manufacturer, but with a goal to become also a leading technology and service provider. So we started with Connected Machines was not always easy at the beginning. We started with building our platform, which is based on a PTC SaaS based ThingWorx instance. So it's built on top of a PTC SaaS ThingWorx instance, and slowly we added new functionalities, new services, and now we've reached quite an important and important goal and an important growth. That means that we have a standard platform with lots of machine and sensitive functionalities, and that means that with the same platform we can serve very, very different kinds of machines. And that of course was a need because inside of email we have so many different kinds of machines and many different industries as well. So we needed something spanner to be used on all of our machines and we succeeded in doing that. And meanwhile we connect with the same platform also anonymous machine. So machine from other machine manufacturers. You've told me before that the machines that you support are on one end of the spectrum and the pharma industry. Yes. On the other end of the spectrum in the coffee and tea industry, yes. I can't think of two more different sets of machine types. Absolutely. And yet you have a standard data platform to deliver digital services? Yes, we have a standard basic package, which is the package of services and functionalities which address performance management. And there we talk about efficiency and tools, helping our customers to improve efficiency, which is something that is a need in all industries nowadays. On top of that, we deliver specific functionalities and specific services on both specific machines or specific industries, or we engage also with specific customer related projects. So you have a standard platform that you're able to customize for the requirements of a particular industry, including regulated industries. Yes, you can customize your solution for a specific client. And then I am imagining that your machines are more attractive to customers if they know they can use the image machines and your software across a diverse set of machines in their factory, eventually displacing that. Oh, look, absolutely. You're perfectly right. And the big advantage is that they have one single access point to the whole world of data driven services, which is growing because this is what I call a never ending project, because every day we keep adding new functionality, these new services, we have new ideas, our customers give us new ideas because at the end we need to develop what our customers need. Otherwise we won't be successful. Now I know IMA Group is a very proud and broadly established global company. You've been in business for decades. Yes, and you as a disruptor created this digital project within the company that's now supporting many of the divisions. Tell me a little bit about how you got started and how you scaled your support of those businesses in your company. Okay. Well, yes, we started with this project called IMA Digital, which is a project involving not only connected machines but involving very different types of digital services. This including a training platform. So digital training, which goes from 2D training app to augmented reality, virtual reality be used for different training needs and functionalities. Plus we have specific applications addressing knowledge base, addressing, troubleshooting, addressing documentation, spare parts, e-commerce for spare parts as well. So whatever is needed today, nowadays to to have more efficient production processes and to make business or more effective and more efficient for our customers. So we started with this project being transversal on all the group because we wanted to have a centrally sized, very skilled people, so very skilled teams that could work for all the companies and all the divisions and this worked out very fine. A center of excellence type of a model. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And this these teams, meanwhile, the strategy changed a little bit in the way that we work. Also, these teams can work also with the outside world. So IMA has created a sort of innovation hub with now it is among 400 people very skilled in very different kinds of technologies. And so we develop services and tools for the IMA world and also for the outside world. I call outside world. So your customers can trust you to consult with them on how the best companies are using your machines and to be more innovative and to become increasingly digital in the way they run their businesses. Yes, What I always like to say that we are helping our customers to create their own digital ecosystem by using also our tools and services, which might be standard, but with which can have very different use cases. So with our experience, both as machine manufacturers and with the experience that we get in seeing so many different customers and so many industries we have, we are able to address very different use cases and to help our customers find not only the right solutions but also the right way to use the tools and the services that we can supply. So this is once one of the values that we think are very important when we sell to our customers our digital solutions. So why should they buy them from us? And not from somebody else? So that's one of the reasons. Well, you're the expert expert in this case now, I, I know and I've heard that you gave a fantastic speech at live work some years ago. You came back to Boston to speak more recently at Live Works. You've been talking about algorithms and you had a vision three years ago. Tell us a little bit about that. Yes, that was very exciting to come back after three years when I presented was invited to present in 2020 and live works. One of the things I was talking about was my vision of algorithms as a service. And well, when that came out of my mouth back in 2020, I knew it was disruptive and it also seemed very super far in the future. Yeah, actually it became reality right now. So it was, it was I was very excited to come back to live works and and share this experience, this journey, and how this vision translated into a value proposition that we brought to the market and to share as well the market reaction. Fantastic. Congratulations on that success. Thank you. You've worked in business with respectfully has had a very long history, a proud history, but is somewhat old fashioned as a machine maker. What challenges did you face with your your colleagues and your employees and your customers, frankly, on getting this digital vision to come to life with them? Well, there were quite a few of challenges. You know, at the very beginning. Innovation and digital innovation means changing your mindset. So this is always a biggest challenge when you when you have to address a mindset change in people. And but slowly it worked. It work by showing also internally and of course to customers that we are very concrete in what we say we're not just talking about things, but we're actually putting them into practice. And this was one of the first things also our customers told us, because having so many different people, different suppliers talking, talking and talking about digital services, about digital tools, digitalization and but none of them really presenting something real, you know? And so this is one of the the was one of the big advantages that we had as compared to others. And that helped me as well internally. And I have to say that the the hardest people to convince were the salespeople. Yeah, that but I think that's in all businesses. I haven't found one single company yet that says, well, we've got great sales people selling machines and selling digital services. But meanwhile, that changed as well. That changed as well and driven both from our customers that are really growing rapidly and and are demanding and they're needing certain tools and certain services that we can provide. Now talk to me a little bit about your customers services journey. When you provide machines and they provide packaging, there's a there's an actual physical services element to the business on both sides. How has that been enhanced by the platform digital platforms that you've created? Well, you know, of course, having sort of a window that opens on on the production of our customers has helped after sales really a lot because we're talking about business of services sold to customers. But there's also a lot of advantages, internal advantages. So in terms not only of machine design and R&D department, but most also after sales and services. So this helped remote assistance to our customers, of course, because when our customers call and have an issue experience problem on their machines, the technicians on our side now immediately they just log into the platform, know exactly how the machine is behaving, what led to the error, to the problem, what kind of adjustments, regulations the operators have done before, and they can also help the customers in following up. So if they give certain advice, they can immediately see what effect this has on the machine and on the production. So this on one side, then also field technician that goes field technician that goes to a customer can be prepared in advance because he can see how the machine was behaving. So it's not something that he has to rely on what the customer is telling. And then also surprised when he gets to the customer. He never knows what he can find. And this, for instance, also with some video assessment that we do before our technicians go to the customer. So that helps as well. Avoiding surprises or they might see also torn parts which the customer was not aware of, which we can all also see through data as well. Because if we can monitor the certain parts and we can detect anomalies, so this helps also supplying before something breaks, supplying spare parts. So all the aftersales business involving field service technicians aftersales support spare parts of course had a great, great benefit of all the tools. So not only data driven services and information, but also augmented reality tools or remote assistance tools as well that can be used both ways. So not only for remote assistance, but also to assess the conditions of a machine. Also visual conditions before a technician goes to the customer. So you're improving customer experience remotely as well as improving the speed to repair and the availability of those machines. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. Fantastic. Let me just ask you one closing question. You've been a member of the PTC community coming to live, works as an expert over the years. You've what has drawn you to commit to ThingWorx as a platform for your solutions and what advice would you have to other live works participants or PTC community members about building their own digital future? Well, I started I got to know PTC in back in 2016 and I was presented with the ThingWorx platform at that time. So it has grown so far, but already at that time was the one Iot industrial Iot platform to have. Then of course I had to to evaluate also other possible solutions. But then when I got to choose, I chose PTC because I liked the vision they already had. PTC already had by that time. And that vision grew with the years. And and somehow it all always reflects also the vision that we have. And so the strategies that we want to bring to the market and that we want our company to grow with. So we see PTC really as a strategic partner and the partner to be with on our journey towards service excellence, digital excellence. We hope so. And and plus, PTC is so alive, so, you know, always and never, never A PTC keeps on moving, moving all the time with new acquisitions, adding new new tools and new softwares, new ideas. And every year there's something new, something challenging. And the vision PTC has, I think nobody else has. So. Well, I think as a disruptor and a thought leader, people like you help us stay on the front foot thinking about new ideas. You had a vision three years ago. Let me ask you, what's your vision for the next three years? What do you anticipate being the next wave of innovation for IMA Group and IMA Digital? Well. Actually, when I when I was at LiveWorx and I heard Jim Heppelmann talking about the infinite loop, you know, that's exactly what we have sort of in mind. You know, we want to kind of close the loop of data driving everything. So driving not only the services for efficiency on the machine, anomaly detection, but also training, spare parts, troubleshooting, whatever will be triggered by data that comes from the field. And it has to be a loop that closes, you know, and and I think this is this is one of the things that we are going towards. Martina, you've talked to me about some of the innovation you've done, particularly around algorithms as a service. Can you give me some examples of what those algorithms look like and what the what the offerings look like that you brought to your customer? Yes. When bringing algorithms as a service to the market, we immediately realized we had to address to unique environment customer environments. One was common environments. So companies who do not have a data collection or have just a very raw data collection, very low or medium level of digitalization, no internal data science skills, but a short time to value requirement. So there we needed to translate our vision, our value proposition into turnkey solutions. And then we had on the other side, we had complex environments like very big corporation, like pharma industries or very big food corporations. And these are environments where there is already a data collection, even though sometimes not really efficient or not streamlined. There are internal data scientists, There are usually very challenging data sharing policies as well, and there is a demand to develop own algorithms because these are customers who want to leverage their expertise in terms of production processes. So we needed to address with tailor made value propositions. So when we went to the market, our solutions were called on one side algo market. So as sort of out of the box solution where a customer can pick sort of a la carte advance, he can look at different use cases and choose an off the shelf algorithm that he thinks would work in his situation and best fits his needs. Then buy it as a service, install it, and then he just can sit back and wait that the algorithm learns and gets trained in order to deliver the best results. So very, very easy to use solutions with no actual effort needed from the customer side. Whereas for complex environments we came out with a solution we call Sandbox, which is a collaborative sort of playground, you know, like this and boxes little children play in. And the idea is really that we partner with a customer, so we engage in this very rich partnerships where we can deliver a collaborative playground in a very structured, fully structured collaborative architecture, where we supply a network of advanced algorithms. We give the customers a centralized data collection and data management as well, and we really co-develop with our customers. And in this way we can leverage our know how as machine manufacturers with their expertise in production processes. And what we saw is that boosted value tremendously because we've really learned from this, from this customer journey as well, that the the, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, because the value the value is really enormous. And what we what we develop together with the customers, neither us nor the customer would have been able to develop on his own. And so these are the two solutions that we have brought to the market. And that showed us on one side was algo market that everybody can benefit even of very advanced algorithms. So we see a sort of democratization of algorithms and not only big and rich customers can afford to have advance services and on the other side, we partner with our customers and we work seamlessly with our teams, even in very different and complex I.T architectures and this has been very challenging and has given us great results. Well, it sounds like there's a virtuous circle here that the what you learn in these custom sandbox environments has got to teach you and give you IP that can then be brought down and democratized for the algo market customers. Exactly. You got exactly the point. Plus, you know, one interesting thing is that our big customers engaging in the sandbox. So in a partnership with us, once we develop together very, very complex algorithms, once they have started using them through the in a platform, well, then they realize that actually their algorithms can live not only on their machines, but they can live also on other machines. So they have the opportunity to become part of a bigger community because if their algorithms are going to work also on machines outside of their world, they will learn more and become more powerful and they will have a benefit out of that. So it's using a very trendy word, which is social, you know, like the machine and the algorithm rhythm becomes sort of social because the customers see the advantage of becoming part of a bigger community, of the community of all connected machines, which is really for customers who before had never share one single data with anybody, is really a great a great goal that they reached at a great wealth as well. So and for us, a big success. Well, congratulations on all the success of IMA Group and IMA Digital. You can modernize them. To my viewers, I hope you've enjoyed this conversation as much as I have. I'm really looking forward to seeing what this team does. Closing that infinity loop and keeping PTC on our toes as they go. Thanks for spending your time. Speaking of service. Thanks for listening to the Speaking of Service podcast brought to you by PTC. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave a rating or review and be sure to check out other episodes to hear new perspectives on improving life for aftermarket professionals, service teams, and the customers they support. If you have a topic of interest or want to provide feedback, email us. At Speaking of service at ptc.com or visit us at ptc.com/speakingofservice.