Home at Biesse invited by Accesoria Group

A few weeks ago I received from Accessories Group | Equipment Division, invitation to visit Biesse - Italian woodworking machinery company. As you already found out, since February 2019 Accesoria Group is Biesse representative in Romania. The visit was organized as a press tour and was the first event in the series prepared for BIFE-SIM 2019. I have to admit that I liked the idea from the very beginning because I wrote about Biesse innovations, concepts such as AUTOMACTION and smart solutions tailored to factories, and to see them all at home sounds very promising.

But I don't want to talk about machines and smart factories here. I will do it soon because I saw many interesting things there. But now I want to tell you what impressed me the most at Biesse, and that is transparency. It's incredible how open they were during this whole visit where we were walked through the whole factory, we were allowed to film any detail we wanted, all our questions were answered.

Representatives from Intarzia and Furniture, specialized wood and furniture magazines. It was a good idea to be together because we were able to get to know each other better, exchange ideas, make friends.

I have always wanted people working in the same field to get to know each other, to talk, to communicate. Whatever the field. There is no need to reveal secrets or unveil new technologies, just try to improve what is common to the field. If you think about it, guilds in the old days were formed precisely to improve the lives of all members.

We arrived at Biesse early in the morning and the program started with a presentation of the 50 years of activity celebrated this year, with a focus on the last few years. Stefano Esposti, the regional sales manager who made the presentation, was also our host for the entire visit. A very attentive host, by the way. Why do I say that? Because I had the impression, at first, that he did not want to dwell too much on the technical details, thinking that they would probably bore us. After all, we were journalists. But we weren't, and the questions started coming in during the presentation. Our host adapted immediately and answered all the questions. And this on-the-fly adaptation would continue in the factory.

It was obvious, however, that this was what he wanted, an interest from us that would allow him to go into more detail, to reveal Biesse's achievements, to tell us about the intelligent solutions developed with traditional partners.

The showroom was the first stop. There were demonstrations on the car Akron 1300 which can be fitted with any of the 3 available gluing systems, we've seen how you can get, on a CNC Rover A, a ball inscribed with the Biesse logo and the map of Italy from a wooden parallelepiped or how you can make, on a similar CNC, but with the right cutters, a plastic mold. We asked everything we were interested in and got the answer every time.

After the showroom we went to the factory. That was the moment when I realized that the transparency I had seen from the beginning was not "played". It was as real as real could be. We filmed entire production lines without seeing a single annoyed or disgruntled face. Everybody was relaxed and acted as if this was the natural flow of things.

Finally, because we were very interested in the program Sophia which links the factory to each machine sold, arranged for us to have a quick but complete presentation after lunch, even though it was not on the program and it was time to leave for the airport (but the driver waited patiently for almost an hour). The program allows both the manufacturer and the beneficiary to access the historical data and the same database related to the activity of a machine. It's a way to solve problems quickly, sometimes the factory can flag the problem before the beneficiary realizes it exists. Starting this year, all machines delivered to beneficiaries are equipped with the program.

Openness seems to be more appreciated than secrecy

I believe that Biesse gains a lot from these press tours precisely by this openness, by wanting their ideas to be as well understood as possible by potential partners. I also think it is the best way to make partners trust the company, the knowledge and the products offered.

I can say that I know this from experience. Many years ago, when I was selling wood varnishes and paints, I was one of the few who talked easily about products, technologies, application methods, little secrets that improved the final result. I knew that all the other competitors on the market knew these things too, but the fact that they didn't share them put me in a favorable light, made me look like I knew more than them. It was the reassurance that if they had a problem, they had someone to talk to.

This is why I say that the Biesse example is one to follow. Every company has something special to communicate and it is good to do it in a natural, open way, not through dry communications or stereotypes that are already well known to everyone.

Congratulations, Accesoria Group, for the idea! Congratulations, Biesse, for transparency!