The Santex R&D department is located in the Meledo production plant dedicated to incontinence care and is one of the most important departments because people work behind the scenes to bring quality and innovative products that take into account the different needs of their users onto the shelves of Italian and foreign distributors, into the wards of institutes and into people’s homes.
The construction and evolution of incontinence product ranges, whether own brand or private label, must always start from a careful analysis of the market, with a focus on innovation in raw materials, finished product and packaging, with the aim of designing articles that are improved day by day.
Research and development at Santex
Santex does not operate in watertight compartments. Research and development activity therefore takes place transversally throughout the company. It therefore does not only concern materials and product development. It involves all production processes, so as to combine raw materials and technologies with even very different product objectives , in order to meet the company’s expectations, the customer’s requirements and, no less important, the end user’s needs.
Research and development at Santex, must not only look at how to improve the production efficiency of the machinery available, but also analyse how the product will be used and what situation of discomfort the end user wants to overcome: attention to the user is one of the most important variables.
The incontinence product in the near future
The market for incontinence products is constantly evolving and growing in terms of volume. The product of today is already different from the product of two years ago and significantly different from the aids used twenty years ago. In the past, they were very bulky and not very absorbent. In the near future, product evolution will continue along the path of offering incontinent people increasingly ergonomic, high-performance and discreet items.
A device seems a trivial item; behind a nappy, however, there is a lot of technology, production and logistics. The future focus will be on improving performance and containing production costs.
