Digital transformation and sustainability are the keywords of Scm Group’s strategy, the Rimini-based giant specializing in technologies and services for wood and other materials. To have a better understanding of how these concepts are deployed, we interviewed – in alphabetical order – Alessandra Benedetti and Eloisa Carlini, respectively Digital Transformation & Business Remodeling and Quality & Sustainability directors.
“Digital transformation and sustainability are not two separate concepts. They are the two faces of a coin, two mechanisms that work synergistically and are intertwined like Dna helixes to develop and create new business models that guide us into the new Industry 5.0”.
Alessandra Benedetti
To talk about the decisions of Scm Group, the Rimini-based specialist in processing solutions for wood and other materials, we started from these words by Alessandra Benedetti, Digital Transformation and Business Remodeling Director, as they clearly reflect the pathway currently followed by the group. Sustainability and digital transformation both converge into the new Digital Control Room project.
“Today, we have more than 3 thousand machines connected to our IoT Maestro connect system”, Alessandra Benedetti said. “All new machines are “Future Ready”, connected and ready to “dialog”. To give you a comparison, machines are like SCM’s nerve endings at our customers, enabling us to gather and analyze data to deliver even more efficient service and maintain a relationship, a “red thread” that binds us to our customers throughout their equipment lifecycle. In practical terms, this is a huge benefit, both for installation and ordinary service, and for preventive maintenance and advisory services aimed at increasing the productivity of an asset. With algorithms and artificial intelligence, combined with the deep expertise of our team, we can monitor and evaluate data flows, making our solutions more and more efficient”.
How is sustainability deployed at Scm Group?
“Sustainability – said Eloisa Carlini, Quality and Sustainability Director of the group – involves all business areas and reaches out to our stakeholders, who play a more and more central role. Sustainability refers to initiatives we have already implemented, embracing the three main pillars of society, environment and business. As to social sustainability, one of the group’s core values has always been the focus on people. This value goes beyond the European Union’s directives and translates into respect for people, attraction and valorization of talents, skills development, performance evaluation, potential development and support coaching for those who take up new responsibilities. Our corporate campus delivers technical and management training with specific pathways, including one about digital transformation we launched a few years ago, partially on site and partially online, addressing our staff based in other sites in Italy and abroad. Overall, we deliver more than 200 thousand hours of training annually, including on-the-job training with millions of euros of investments.
Eloisa Carlini
In practical terms, we promote initiatives for the physical and psychological wellness of employees, we improve the working environments both in the existing buildings and in new premises built according to advanced standards, we make significant investments to reduce the energy consumption of factories and increase the share of renewable sources. We prefer structural solutions rather than simply buying sustainability certificates, therefore we are focusing on initiatives at plant level. This approach to sustainability also involves the packaging of our machines and components, contributing to the reduction of environmental impact across the entire product lifecycle. As to business sustainability, our vision as a group is to become partners of our customers for the entire lifecycle of a machine”.
“As I said and Eloisa clearly explained, sustainability and digital transformation are intertwined”, Alessandra Benedetti added. “To pursue our “green” vision, we have focused on energy monitoring, i.e. the ability of viewing the energy consumption of a machine to guide the customer in the adoption of solutions and strategies that allow to save on part production, leveraging the Digital Control Room to gather insights and feedback on how you can improved the product in terms of energy saving, especially with an eye to Industry 5.0. Through constant monitoring, we have also optimized machine maintenance, performing onsite operations only when necessary, avoiding random periodical maintenance by identifying critical situations, strengthening the parts and working to improve solutions together with customers.
As to training and technical education, we have developed a “solutions library” that builds on 70 years of know-how; it stores all documents and provides our operators with anything required to operate a machine day by day, promoting a culture of continuous learning and knowledge sharing, so that knowledge is available to those who work with us and to our customers, enabling them to increase equipment productivity.
At economic level, SCM has further improved servitization, as mentioned by Eloisa, according to the motto “to make you even more productive”, supplying not just the “asset” itself but also software, consulting and training, playing a different role and, as a company, evolving our capabilities and skills, not only in the technical domain, but also in relations”.
“Sustainability is certainly a benefit for production – Alessandra Benedetti remarked – but I like to think that this is not just the result of European directives, but a growth strategy with a wider scope, not only as a company, but as people. It’s a pathway of progressive awareness about these topics that in the coming years will change the impact on the industry, and more generally, on our lives”.
