Anticipating scenarios to make a difference
For Cefla, innovation means long-term thinking, combining in-depth know-how with a clear strategic vision. It is the key opening the doors to international markets and an essential tool for turning real needs into tangible benefits for people.
In our Group, innovation is viewed as an asset driving competitiveness and a pragmatic, future-oriented mission.
90-plus years of history have taught us that our growth is the result of continuous investment in innovation and development. Our goal is to understand in advance which innovations will bring real benefits, to then develop them and make them promptly available to our target markets.
The pillars of our vision: value, sustainability and people
To address the major digital and environmental transformations currently under way, Cefla’s approach to innovation is based on three key factors – “Who, What, and How“- with customer needs as the starting point and sustainable business models as the end goal.
Our innovation ecosystem is built on solid foundations:
Focus on end users
We focus on the evolution of processes and products driven by our constant desire to generate tangible and lasting benefits for end users.
Continuous improvement and R&D
We support innovation with a total investment of €14 million per year in Research and Development and are very proud of our portfolio of 733 active patents.
Pragmatic Artificial Intelligence
We don’t use AI as a business model to sell software separately, but rather integrate it to improve our hardware, speed up the design phase and maximise product performance in the field.
The value of people
Investments and technology wouldn’t be enough without our people: their open minds, curiosity and sense of responsibility are the true driving force behind innovation, combining traditional skills with a dynamic approach to the future.
Cefla’s position is unique on the international stage thanks to its multibusiness model. A company that employs 2,000 people worldwide, founded as a local cooperative business back in 1932, is today a flexible international leader. Innovation brings different markets together to achieve a single mission: to create ethical, sustainable, and long-lasting value.
This is how our vision takes shape within our Business Units.
Medical Equipment Business Unit: Multibrand strategy for the international market scene
As the leading European manufacturer of dental equipment, with as many as 510 active patents, our Medical Equipment BU implements innovation through a strategy focussing on prestigious brands including Stern Weber, Castellini and Anthos, Mocom, Newtom, Myray and Biosafin.
Our answer to the conflicting needs of customisation and production standardisation is our VRP (Variety Reduction Program). By developing products for digitalised platforms, we manage to save many productive hours in our factories each year.
Our current developments focus on Artificial Intelligence, Digital Workflow and the creation of a unified software ecosystem, among the key areas of innovation we invest in to offer increasingly cutting-edge medical devices.
Engineering Business Unit: predictive technologies for efficiency
In our Engineering BU, technological innovation becomes synonymous with energy transition, decarbonisation and the protection of vital resources – such as water. By operating in the EPC Contracting, Facility Management, Power Generation and Networks and Utilities sectors, we apply predictive intelligence to designing the future.
Our technological achievements include:
- Energy Efficiency and Fuel Cells: We are pioneers in the integration of Fuel Cell cogeneration, a technology that reduces methane consumption and CO2 emissions by 30% – eliminating local pollutants and water use.
- En.vision platform: A proprietary AI-based platform that analyses data in real time to optimise large thermal power plants and improve Data Center efficiency.
- AI-based Water Leak Prediction: A revolutionary project that uses AI to predict future leaks in city water networks with an accuracy exceeding 80% over a six-month time-frame, allowing for damage prevention and water resource protection.
Finishing Business Unit: managing complexity and listening to market needs
As a System Integrator in industrial coating processes, our Finishing BU can manage extreme levels of complexity, with a catalogue of 90,000 configurations and over 300,000 codes. Here, innovation stems from actively listening to the market.
We work with “Pull”-type innovation, optimising processes based on the daily experience of major customers, and “Push”-type innovation, developing brand-new solutions at the request of top luxury and automotive brands. Technological innovation at the service of excellence and waste reduction:
- Vision and Autotuning AI: We use neural networks capable of identifying tiny paint coat defects in milliseconds, automatically adjusting the robotic arm without any production down-time, for zero-waste efficiency.
- Digital risk management: To offer accurate solutions for customised systems, we have digitalised the risk assessment process through a logical-mathematical matrix designed to protect both the company and its customers.
"Our commitment to tomorrow"
Whether it’s used for redesigning a dental equipment production line, meeting the challenges of the furniture industry, or saving drinking water through complex predictive algorithms, technological innovation has only one meaning for Cefla: mastering the challenges of the present to build competitive, ethical, and environmentally friendly value for the future.