“VIV Europe 2022 has finally brought us back to a lively feeling of normality, albeit with the awareness that the world has changed forever”. Facco welcomed us to their stand, which this year is particularly rich in content and technology: a new world, which we have experienced and will tell you about. VIV Europe 2022 was the stage from where Facco, which has been building poultry solutions and farms all over the world since 1957, showed the future of poultry.
A long tradition as a trend setter (they were the first to offer turnkey systems, and boast numerous patents that continue to increase among their achievements) summarized in a claim used until recently, Partners not suppliers, which already embodied an almost co-design approach with their customers. A claim that has evolved into We never stop growing. With you, and this concept of mutual and shared growth is what opens the doors to the ongoing evolution.
“Covid has taught us that we can be present in a country where our customers need support or service, without being able to physically reach them. Today, thanks to the technology and our presence in every possible time zone of the world, we are able to manage and resolve critical moments or provide routine support even from a distance. Thereby we created Facco Remote Assistance” they explain. Zootecnica International had the chance to test this possibility first-hand.
Thanks to the Hologlasses, the latest generation glasses for augmented reality and shared vision, we connected with Italy by simulating a problem, as if we were in the control center of a farm, from a Facco control unit. We exposed the critical issues that needed to be solved and have been guided step by step on punctual and decisive operations that we would have hardly faced alone. Furthermore, we were guided on extraordinary maintenance processes (possible both on the hardware and on the software part) and discovered the numerous functions of the Facco’s Smart Farm family control unit.
The widespread organization with its direct presence in the time zones of the 5 continents makes sure that, together with the technology, the service offered by Facco have a unique feature that differentiates it from all the services offered through centralized help desks.
What is clear, in addition to the timeliness and speed that allow to manage a whole range of customer’s needs, is that Facco assistance has become proactive, and not just reactive as often happens in these cases.
Additionally, all the info of a customer’s plant can be collected and saved on a cloud. This allows the analysis and comparison of the performances of previous months or years (perhaps with the same season), or the overlapping of data of the plant and production compared with historical or current data. Through the Facco CMS it is possible to check the effective good functioning of the plant motors allowing a proactivity both for the maintenance and of the prompt supply of the necessary spare parts. Upon request, the customer can activate the Facco Business Intelligence service and thus also be helped in monitoring all costs according to margins without wasting resources and leaving the analysis of the many collected data to the BI. “The management cases are now several and our knowledge is now so advanced to allow us to anticipate problems. This is a great plus for the customer ”, they comment.
The company’s over 60 years of experience are confirmed and enhanced on the basis of mechanical and IT knowledge strengthened by a service that is truly capable of making a difference. It is no longer just about remote control, which Facco introduced a few years ago with the launch of Smart Farm. Control, of course, remains central, but it is not based only on checking or managing your system from a tablet or smartphone (thanks also to a redundant alarm system that guarantees immediate intervention in case of problems). Control becomes analysis, becomes service, becomes projection towards the future.
All this without obviously neglecting some key themes of our time. Animal welfare, and the comfort of the operators inside the plants, for example, are also protected by an additional tool: Smart Vision, another innovation presented at this edition of VIV Europe. A special monitoring station that through special sensors for the measurement of humidity, temperature, CO2 and ammonia thanks to recording cameras and infrared cameras, allow a constant monitoring of the conditions in all the points of the system, identifying areas that require particular attention. 
An aspect that in cage free systems where hens can migrate according to the environmental situation, becomes of great importance for the management. The infrared camera allows to easily identify any deceased animals. In case of alarms reported by the control units, the operator, even remotely, can activate Smart Vision and perform a precise check even with the super zoom function, promptly reaching even the most difficult areas, with a very high level of precision. The resulting analysis and data reading allow Facco to build customized conditions together with its customer for the best performance of the plants.
Facco Remote Assistance is fully integrated with all Smart Farm diagnostic systems, from control units for general control to the systems dedicated to the management of alarms, water, egg collection, feed distribution and now also the brand new Smart Vision.
