A diagnostic method for analysing the operation of an automatic machine which processes products in the tobacco industry includes the following steps: introducing into the machine an endoscopic probe whose shape and size correspond to the shape and size of the products the machine is designed to process and which the machine processes as if it were a real product. During processing in the machine, the probe acquires data through a sensor of its own. The method also includes determining the positions adopted by the probe while it is being processed in the machine and associating them with the data acquired by the probe while it is being processed in the machine.

An apparatus for forming a collation of rod-shaped aerosol-generating articles is provided, including: multiple movable pockets, each pocket to house a collation having a number of layers of the articles; a number of hoppers forming a reservoir of the articles, each hopper to provide a respective transfer set of the articles to the collation; and a control system to control relative movement of the respective pocket with respect to the hoppers, the respective pocket to be arranged next to each hopper enabling transfer of the respective transfer set of the articles from the respective hopper to the respective pocket, a cumulative number of the articles in all transfer sets is greater than a number of the articles in the respective collation, and the control system is further to vertically move the pockets independently of each other relative to the hoppers and/or to move the hoppers independently of each other.

A method for forming pairs of packs, comprising providing a supply of individual packs (100), arranging a first pack in a vertical transport device (40), arranging a second pack in the vertical transport device (40), thereby arranging the second pack vertically spaced from the first pack in the vertical transport device (40). The method further comprises vertically transporting the first and the second pack in the vertical transport device, then simultaneous pushing the first and second packs as a pair of packs out of the vertical transport device and into a receiving device (50), wherein the first and second packs are transferred in a vertically spaced manner as the pair of packs to the receiving device and are arranged in a vertically spaced manner in the receiving device.