🚛 Rising fuel costs and truckers’ protests have once again highlighted how essential the movement of goods is to the Italian economy.
The blockades and slowdowns of recent weeks, especially in some regions of southern Italy, have disrupted the distribution of fuel, food and other goods. But the consequences are not limited to supermarket shelves: transport disruptions can affect every stage of the supply chain, from raw material procurement to delivery of the finished product.
According to Reuters, the protests also affected food companies and car plants, with production suspended due, among other causes, to a shortage of components. On 22 October the protests were reported to be easing in some areas, after further support measures were approved.
🏭 The future of European industry is built on innovation, skills and solid businesses. Advanced robotics and physical artificial intelligence were at the heart of the meeting at MIMIT between Minister Adolfo Urso and the leadership of Siemens Digital Industries, Cedrik Neike and Floriano Masoero. 🤖 Here is what it concretely means for those who keep a plant running every day.
Humidity, condensation and temperature swings can put industrial electronic components to the test. The change of season is an opportunity to check their condition and take care of production continuity.
In autumn we take out our umbrellas, change our wardrobe and check the heating. Electronic boards, on the other hand, can’t put on a raincoat. Yet they too have to cope with a changing environment.
In production plants, the shift to the cooler season can accentuate certain critical conditions: humidity, temperature differences and condensation. When dust and contaminants are added to these factors, industrial electronics can suffer.
Of course, it’s not a leaf on the calendar that causes a failure. It’s the conditions in which components operate that make the difference.
When energy costs more, every inefficiency weighs on margins. Maintenance, repair and remanufacturing of industrial electronics help protect production continuity and make the most of existing plants.
You can’t fix the energy bill with a screwdriver. But some of the inefficiencies weighing on production can be tackled by taking care of your plants.
According to the ISTAT release on producer prices for August 2026, the prices of electricity and gas supply on the domestic market rose by 26.3% compared with August 2025. This is an indicator of pressure on energy costs, which does not automatically mean the same increase in the bill for every company: the actual impact also depends on contracts and consumption.
For industrial companies, this scenario makes it even more important to use resources well. Attention must focus both on how much energy is consumed and on how much useful output is achieved.
The growth of the Italian economy coexists with difficulties in the industrial sector. In this scenario, taking care of plants and electronics becomes a concrete choice to protect production continuity.
GDP is growing. Good news, but on its own it doesn’t tell what is happening inside factories.
According to ISTAT’s quarterly national accounts, updated with the revision of 5 October, Italian GDP increased in the second quarter of 2026 by 0.2% compared with the previous quarter. Over the same period, value added in services grew by 0.4%, while that of industry fell by 0.6%.
The economy, therefore, is not moving at the same pace everywhere. For an industrial company, overall national growth can go hand in hand with production activity that is harder to manage.
Periodic testing of electronic spares helps check the condition of spare parts and prepare the response to machine downtime. Because having the component on the shelf matters. Knowing what condition it is in matters even more.
The machine stops. The technician identifies the faulty component and takes the spare part from the warehouse. It’s the right one, it’s available and it looks in good condition.
Then comes the moment of replacement. And the spare part doesn’t work.
It’s a situation that can complicate the restart just when every minute counts. A component stored in the warehouse, even if unused, is not automatically ready to go into service.
That is why managing electronic spares should also include checking their condition and functionality.
Restarting after a production break takes more than a finger on the button. Knowing the plant’s critical points and planning maintenance helps you approach the restart better prepared.
The plants have been idle for a few weeks. Orders are waiting, deliveries are scheduled and production has to restart.
The maintenance manager approaches the line. He puts his finger on the START button and, for a moment, several questions run through his mind.
Will the PLC restart? Will that drive that had already reported an anomaly work properly? Were the parameters saved? Is the spare part for that obsolete component available?
Then he presses the button.
A few seconds of silence. Which, at that moment, feel much longer than expected.
Restarting shouldn’t depend on hoping everything goes well. It should be a prepared activity, with clear priorities and defined actions to deal with any problems.
For E-Repair, sustainability also means valuing people and building a respectful, fair and inclusive workplace.
Our gender equality path is part of this approach, launched by adopting principles and tools to promote equal opportunities and combat all forms of discrimination.
In 2024, this commitment led to us obtaining gender equality certification under UNI/PdR 125:2022.
When an electronic device fails and a production line stops, the question is almost always the same:
⏱️ How long will it take to restart?
At that moment every hour counts. Production is slowed down or completely stopped, priorities suddenly change and the whole organisation focuses on finding the fastest solution.
Yet how quickly downtime can be handled does not depend only on what happens after the failure.
💡 Very often it depends on how much was done beforehand.
When does an industrial machine really become obsolete?
When the manufacturer stops making it? When a component is dropped from the catalogue? When original spare parts become hard to find? Or when a newer technology arrives on the market?
The answer seems simple, but it isn’t.
In an industrial system increasingly focused on innovation, we tend to automatically associate “new” with “better”. Yet factories all over the world are still running machines and plants installed many years ago, thoroughly known by technicians and maintenance staff and still able to deliver reliability, quality and productivity.
Perhaps, then, we should distinguish more carefully between commercial, technological and functional obsolescence.
August is often the month when many companies slow down.
Production decreases, some plants are shut down, departments work at reduced capacity and people take a break.
In the industrial world, however, stopping does not necessarily mean wasting time.
In some cases it means doing exactly the opposite: using a period of lower activity to protect production continuity in the months that follow.
Because there is a big difference between planned downtime and downtime that happens to you.
From 1 October 2026, Siemens is bringing its main automation activities together in a single organisation, led by Rainer Brehm.
Rainer Brehm is the President of Siemens’ new Automation unit, effective 1 October 2026. The appointment accompanies a reorganisation that combines Customer Services, Factory Automation, Motion Control and Process Automation, as part of the ONE Tech Company strategy.
The stated aim is to strengthen the integration of automation expertise and help industrial customers develop more flexible, productive and resilient production systems.
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