In the transition to automation, a family-run company from Sassuolo has turned a chance into an opportunity. Today, ZANASI employs seventy people and holds a global market share of 65%. For FARE INSIEME, Giampaolo Colletti interviewed the General Manager, Andrea Zanasi
by Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
It’s easy to
say automation today. But try rewinding the tape, putting back the hands of the
clock and finding yourself in the late 1970s. Automation was in its infancy
then. It could be glimpsed on the horizon, but the picture was very blurry. A
sort of in-between period for the transition to come. At that time, in the
heart of Emilia characterised by manufacturing and production districts, there
was a family that saw into the future. So that is the vision. But it was still
just an idea based on a gamble. And to think that this purposeful and
courageous family decided to invest all their life savings in a new business
based on that fledgling automation. In time, though, that brilliant insight
would prove successful.
The story. In short, everything in
this story starts with the automation of Sassuolo’s ceramic industries. In
those days, there were static packs, printed manually by workers on lines that
needed a rotary printing machine. The ceramic companies were struggling to find
this printing machine; and the Zanasi brothers, the family we mentioned
earlier, seeing this unmet need, decided to found the company now known as
ZANASI. ‘The most difficult thing was to invest the savings of the whole family
in second-hand machines because the new ones cost too much. Those machines
allowed us to make our products in the early years. The first few months of the
company’s life were also critical as the costs were greater than the income.
Then the right contacts, the help of friends and word of mouth allowed us to
enter the ceramic industry and work with other manufacturers in the ceramic
district. That’s where our story begins,’ says Andrea Zanasi, General Manager
of ZANASI, a 41-year-old entrepreneur born in Sassuolo with some experience
overseas behind him, and a degree in electrical engineering and a master’s
degree in business administration from the Bologna Business School in his
pocket. He now leads the second generation working in the family business, while until a year
ago he headed research and development and the technical department. It’s all
home-work-home, today like yesterday. ‘My home and the office are about one
kilometre apart as the crow flies. As a child, a good part of my summer holiday
was spent in the company, learning how to do things,’ says Zanasi. Let’s go
back to the 1970s. Back then, tiles were boxed and product information was then
affixed, with the lines slowly beginning to be automated. The tiles then began
to move on rollers with a stamp affixed on a rotating basis. This was a wheel
that left the letters as a kind of stamp when it came into contact with the
box. These so-called technological solutions were impossible to find back in
the day. One of the Zanasi brothers who worked as an employee in a machine shop
mulled over the potential of this revolution. And he took a decision: Let’s start our own company to offer these
solutions. Because there is a huge market and, more importantly, it’s a
growing one. We are in Sassuolo, the world capital of ceramics and the heart of
the packaging machinery district. But it is still a niche, albeit open to the
whole world. The Zanasi brothers through word of mouth begin to optimise
ceramic production lines. And they hit the jackpot. ‘Mind you, it took some
time to earn the trust of the community,’ Zanasi recalls.
Company profile. Today ZANASI employs 70 people and holds a 65% share of the global
market. Some technologies are designed to work in tough environments, such as
the metal, cement, timber, pulp or paper industries. These are technologies for
heavy duty applications and perform extremely well in those environments.
Others are dedicated to food & beverage and pharmaceuticals, where the
environments are much cleaner and more controlled but productivity is very
high. ‘The common denominator is
extremely high reliability, robustness and repairability of the products
because our overriding goal is to print codes without interrupting the
customers’ production lines. Indeed, we need to be an invisible part of the
production line so that operators can focus on making their product. Our secret
dream? Eliminating paper labels. Because paper is not free, it comes from
felled trees and an industrial process. In the world I dream of, we will no
longer need paper because we will print directly on the product,’ says Zanasi.
Meanwhile, the company has units in Milan and Caserta and two offices in the
United States and China, in Minneapolis and Canton to be precise. ‘The one thing we have always held
dear, though, is remaining close to customers, listening to their needs and
making sure they are satisfied’, Zanasi concludes. Even for glocal
organisations, success depends on this relationship, based on listening.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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