Why Famar chooses Retinae for vision systems in drug production lines

For a couple of years now, Famar Italia has been choosing Retinae for its vision systems, and in particular we are talking about ISOBLISTER, an inspection system capable of checking the conformity of drugs inside the blister alveoli. With Enrico Russo, Head of Engineering at FAMAR ITALIA S.P.A., we retrace the steps and reasons that led this important pharmaceutical company to consolidate its relationship with Retinae and to consider expanding it with further solutions. But let us go in order.

Mr Russo, how did the meeting with Retinae come about and what made it become ongoing?

We had known Retinae for some time, thanks to their sales manager, Eugenio Stocco, who used to visit us and describe the company as having a very solid product and great flexibility. However, it was some time before Retinae became our supplier. In Famar we came from experience with other suppliers. And there we stayed.

Then what happened?

There were two key moments. The first was when Retinae became a partner of Partena a very serious company of which we have several lines installed. This fact confirmed to us the solidity of Retinae and in some way reassured us that any problems would be solved at source.

And the second moment?

It was a problem with a vision system installed on one of our lines. We are subcontract manufacturers and downtime means very serious problems because, apart from the repercussions on our turnover, it can create tension with the customer. At that juncture we experienced the responsiveness of Retinae, which organised itself in a very short time to provide its own solution to replace the broken machine. Not only that, but Stocco directly took care of the relationship with Partena so that their technicians would also be present on the day of installation, in order to optimise the intervention. And so in just 10 days we had a stopped machine up and running again, complete with pharmaceutical validation, because in pharmaceuticals everything has to be validated. Other suppliers had expected much longer lead times, six to eight weeks.

From there, how did Famar’s collaboration with Retinae continue?

Retinae’s promptness in solving that problem definitely convinced us. We recently purchased a machine from Partena, specifying the request to install Retinae’s technology. Famar is also considering buying barcode readers for the leaflets and control systems for the cartons from Retinae.

This is a good case of customer satisfaction.

After responsiveness, the second driver of this satisfaction is the technical competence of the installation technician who, according to our most experienced in-house person, is able to understand both the machine on which the system is installed and how best to adapt their system to our needs and peculiarities. Last but not least, the system proposed by Retinae is very user-friendly.

What do you mean?

Our maintainers are familiar with different interfaces and today they appreciate Retinae’s for being the most user-friendly and easy to understand. And I would add that in the relationship with Retinae you talk to the owner, who has no problem visiting the company and is very competent as he is also a developer. This flat structure of theirs, this approach to the customer, makes Retinae able to customise their solutions very quickly, something that has become impossible with other players in the market. With others, either you adapt, as a customer, or you don’t buy their system.