Travel restrictions no reason to stop innovation and growth
Uzwil (Switzerland), March 29, 2021 – The Bühler global application center network is up and running. During the last 12 months, Bühler has become particularly adept at performing trials with customers, either virtually or within a carefully managed “bubble.”
“Twelve months ago, we asked ourselves if we can do factory acceptance tests and remote commissioning of lines, then why are we not doing virtual pilot plant trials together?” says Ian Roberts, Chief Technology Officer at Bühler Group. “In a time of prolific use of digital technologies, there is no reason that our availability should be a bottleneck in the speed of innovation of our customers.”
In fact, by utilizing trial data capture, the Bühler Insights platform, remote visualization and video streaming, and on-site analytical labs, the Bühler teams work together with customers to plan, run, and adjust trials in real-time. Products are then sent for evaluation at customer sites. Although it is more fun to work side by side, the virtual trials are so efficient that Bühler will maintain this option even when travel is easier again.
For physical trials, when national rules and travel allow, Bühler has excellent practices in place, from rapid testing, to distancing, masks, disinfection, and safe behavior, to create the safest possible work situation.
While Bühler’s application labs in China are running at full throttle with close to 100 trials run with customers in March, it is noteworthy that all Bühler application and trainings centers across Europe and the US have run three to five customer trials per week during the same period, many of them remotely.
Bühler has a global network of application and training centers in 24 locations. The company will open two more food safe application centers in 2021, with their new joint lab with Givaudan in Singapore opening on April 26, 2021, and their new facility at Deutsches Institut für Lebensmitteltechnik e.V. (DIL) in Germany opening in the second half of the year. “This enables us to be close to our customers and to their markets, but also to provide possibilities for virtual collaboration in the same language and frequently the same time zone,” says Sandra Lutz, global coordinator of Bühler’s application center network. “We invite our customers and partners to get in touch with us. Your local Bühler sales offices are there to support you to organize this.”
Bühler invites customers, partners, and start-ups to use Bühler’s global network of application centers as a joint playground to inspire and innovate. They can be used to validate and improve processes, get trainings on the latest technologies, and to co-create new products together with Bühler.
You can find an overview of Bühler’s global network of application and training centers here.
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About Bühler
Bühler is driven by its purpose of creating innovations for a better world, balancing the needs of economy, humanity, and nature. As a relevant solution partner for the food and mobility industries, Bühler is committed to reduce energy, waste, and water in its customers’ value chains by 50% by 2025. Billions of people come into contact with Bühler technologies as they cover their basic needs for food and mobility every day. Two billion people each day enjoy foods produced on Bühler equipment; and one billion people travel in vehicles manufactured using parts produced with Bühler technology. Countless people wear eyeglasses, use smart phones, and read newspapers and magazines – all of which depend on Bühler process technologies and solutions. Having this global relevance, Bühler is in a unique position to turn today’s global challenges into sustainable business. Bühler contributes to safely feeding the world and is doing its part to protect the climate, producing solutions that make cars, buildings, and machinery more energy efficient.
Bühler invests up to 5% of turnover into research and development. In 2020, some 12,500 employees generated a turnover of CHF 2.7 billion. As a Swiss family-owned company, Bühler is active in 140 countries around the world and operates a global network of 100 service stations, 33 manufacturing sites, and application and training centers in 24 locations. www.buhlergroup.com
