The Marchesini Group is investing seven million euros in a new site for CMP Phar.ma, a subsidiary specialising in the manufacture of inspection systems for the pharmaceutical industry. Marchesini also wants to pave the way for production with artificial intelligence.
CMP Phar.ma's new plant in Costabissara (Vicenza, Italy) covers around 5,000 square metres, more than half of which will be used for production. It is also planned to a doubling of the workforce - from 42 today to 80 - within four years.
The product portfolio of CMP Phar.ma today includes a Wide range of inspection machines, not only for ampoules, but also for vials, pre-filled syringes and freeze-dried products. The company recently became part of the Marchesini Group, the manufacturer of machines for packaging pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. With its inspection machines, CMP Phar.ma aims to contribute to the realisation of entire production lines, which are used, for example, for the packaging of Covid vaccines and cancer drugs, both of which require a high degree of quality control.
„The new plant will be the centrepiece of production, while the company's warehouse and research and development department will remain at the current site nearby. At both sites, we will work on the development and production of new testing machine models to complete the product range and give us access to important markets such as North America and China. At the same time, we will drive forward the development of our programme based on artificial intelligence.“
Luigi Pilastro, CEO CMP Phar.ma
To this end, a futuristic project was developed by an internal team in collaboration with Eyecan, a spin-off of the University of Bologna in which the Marchesini Group is involved. The aim is the introduction of artificial intelligence as standard in all testing machines.
„At CMP Phar.ma and within the Marchesini Group, we utilise AI algorithms for both predictive maintenance and of our machines as well as to improve the vision and inspection systems used during the packaging cycles and to increase the intelligence of the robots required to handle the products on our lines. The already impressive results are helping to improve production quality and free people from repetitive tasks, freeing them up for more ‚human‘ activities. So when I am asked - also in my role as Vice President of Confindustria - whether technological progress will lead to unemployment, my answer is nuanced: Jobs will certainly be lost, but new professions will be created. The crucial difference will be between those who work with neural networks and those who are not able to use them.“
Maurizio Marchesini, Chairman Marchesini Group
Source: Marchesini
