Joanna Wojciak-Baiguini · North America After Sales Director · Book Automation/Meccanotecnica

Automation doesn’t only change production. It also changes the people who have to support the machines.

At PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas, Morten B. Reitoft continues his visit with Meccanotecnica — or, as the company is known in the North American market, Book Automation — for a conversation about something that rarely gets the same attention as a new machine: service.

And that service organization is changing.

As Meccanotecnica has expanded from its traditional strength in book sewing into increasingly automated finishing solutions such as perfect binding and LYRA casing-in, the technical knowledge required to support customers has evolved as well.

Where service calls historically might have focused heavily on mechanics, today’s questions increasingly involve automation, electronics, software and communication between different systems.

That changes the role of the service engineer.

Remote connectivity has become an important first step. Rather than trying to understand a production problem from an email or telephone description, Book Automation technicians can connect directly to supported equipment, see what is happening and begin diagnosing a problem in real time.

But remote service isn’t intended to replace the technician.

Morten asks whether video calls and remote connections can sometimes become a convenient substitute for having a strong local service organization. The answer is clear: remote diagnostics are another tool for qualified service engineers. The same people troubleshooting remotely are the technicians who will travel to the customer when the problem cannot be resolved from a distance.

And plenty of situations still require someone standing beside the machine.

The discussion also turns to another increasingly important challenge: making sophisticated equipment easier to operate.

Meccanotecnica deliberately uses symbols and numerical information extensively in its user interfaces rather than relying on large amounts of written text. That makes operation more intuitive, reduces language barriers and allows similar functions to be represented consistently across different machines.

It is another example of how knowledge is increasingly being embedded into the equipment itself.

As automation increases, the machine needs to guide the operator through more of the production process. That becomes particularly important as printing and binding companies struggle to recruit highly experienced operators and increasingly need equipment that can be operated by people with less specialized knowledge.

But service isn’t only about fixing machines after they have been installed.

Customer support also creates one of the most valuable feedback channels into research and development. Service engineers see how equipment performs in real production environments every day. They hear what operators struggle with, discover unusual applications and identify where seemingly small changes could make the machines easier or more reliable to use.

That information goes directly back to the people developing the next generation of equipment.

And in this case, that connection is particularly close, with experience from years working directly with Meccanotecnica’s R&D organization now moving into the North American Book Automation service team.

As Meccanotecnica expands its product portfolio, Book Automation’s service organization therefore has to evolve with it.

More automation means more software. More connectivity means better remote diagnostics. Easier user interfaces reduce dependency on specialist operators. And stronger communication between customers, service technicians and R&D ultimately creates better machines.

The future of book production may be increasingly automated.

But somebody still has to understand how everything works.

Watch Morten B. Reitoft’s conversation from the Book Automation / Meccanotecnica booth at PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas.