Savio Spends 5 Percent Of Its Sales in R&D Every Year
Gabriele Tonin, Savio’s Turkey Sales Vice President
As one of the leading suppliers of winding, twisting and rotor spinning machines, Savio has a strong focus on R&D with a team of more than 80 dedicated R&D engineers. Company spends 5 percent of its sales in R&D every year.
Savio is specialized in the yarn-finishing segment, offers winding systems that are ideal for many different needs, supporting customers in the textile challenge and developing new applications to meet their requests.
We interviewed with Gabriele Tonin, Savio’s Turkey Sales Vice President for our ‘Spinning Technology Special Issue. Explaining the measures taken by Savio company during the pandemic process and the innovations made in the fields of R&D, Industry 4.0 and automation Tonin, “Many employees have smart-worked from home during lockdown in Italy, so we have been able to continue operations, provide assistance and fulfil the orders of our customers.” says.
What developments have your company achieved in the yarn machinery market over the past 12 months?
The last 12 months have been very challenging, especially the last 6 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, if we look back at past year, we see ITMA exhibition, the most important event in textile machinery community, and its positive environnment of B2B meetings, product presentations and customer relations. Savio in its 100+ history has always acted as technological leader and most innovative player in attractive niches of the textile value chain. In 2019 ITMA Barcelona Savio has exhibited innovative, highly automated, energy saving and Industry 4.0 solutions in all displayed machines. We have achieved a higher level of automation with many digital solutions for our machinery.
What industrial and economic challenges are currently impacting your company, and how is your company responding to them?
Covid-19 pandemic has severely impacted worldwide, and also on the textile machinery market. It is a big challenge. From an economic point of view, the big challenge is the uncertainty for new machinery investments from our customers and the decrease of textile products consumption.We are confident that some markets will recover earlier than other countries, so the new investments will come again and consequently the textile consumption. From an industrial point of view, despite the very difficult situation, Savio has always been able to grant prompt feedbacks as well as After-Sales services and Spare Parts services to our customers worldwide. Many employees have smart-worked from home during lockdown in Italy, so we have been able to continue operations, provide assistance and fulfil the orders of our customers.
How is your company working to drive quality improvements in its machinery?
Quality improvements in textile machinery engineering are a must, Savio has a strong focus on R&D, with a team of over 80 dedicated R&D engineers. About 5% of sales is spent in R&D every year. Nowadays the main R&D drives are automation and digitalization.The requirement for integrated automation in the spinning process is increasing, because of yarn quality and productivity advantages that such solution offers. This integrated automation drive has led Savio to offer customers new bespoke solutions, to increase flexibility to fro winder. The latest solution from Savio is the Multi Link, that connects multiple ring spinning frames (RSF) to one Savio winder, becoming a tailor-made circuit to link two or three RSFs to one winding machine. This solution optimizes space, reduces energy-consumption and production costs. This automatic bobbin transport shortens servicing paths for the operators and allows an ergonomic material flow. The costs for production, space and energy are reduced, while keeping the quality consistent even with long and multi-connected machines.
Another main improvement is Industry 4.0, the actual trend of digitalization and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. Nowadays, Savio product development is focused on “smart” components that must transmit data online. The new possibilities offered by the connection of the machines translates into the different levels of Savio Industrial IoT, with the possibility of progressive sophistication. Different option levels, each corresponding to a different dose of Industry 4.0 applied to Savio textile winding machinery, from simple connectivity and machinery data downloading, to remote machine setup, to operator real-time interactivity.
Could you tell us about your worldwide sales and support network and the countries you export? What are your expansion plans? What has been the impact of Covid-19 on the business you are in?
Savio can count on a direct commercial presence in over 60 countries around the world, with Sales and Service Centers, Spare Parts Stores and Academy centers for local technical training.
Savio has a consolidated presence in all relevant geographies with a local-for-local approach, allowing to promptly address market demand and requirements. Despite the winding market has been severly impacted by Covid-19 pandemic, who has affected all primary textile markets (for example China and India), thanks to the wide network of sales and after-sales, Savio has been able to keep up and continue to grant products and services worldwide. For decades Savio has invested in building after sales and spare parts centres in important textile regions worldwide. Now more than ever, with borders closed and travel restrictions, thanks to our investments in building our network, our customers can enjoy the maximum benefits of having a local service centre just ‘a phone call’ away.
Interview: Dilek HAYIRLI
