A company linked to
precision mechanics, which was established in the outskirts of Bologna and that
rethinks the way of working. Co-creation with customers, soft skills, industry
4.0: the
company records 9 million in turnover and has 52 employees. Giampaolo
Colletti interviews Alessandro Lupi, CEO of Primamec, for FARE INSIEME
di Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Would you change your
life? A new professional chapter began for Alessandro Lupi, a long-time
mechanical engineer and manager, with this question so simple, yet so difficult
to answer, on a evening in May of six years ago, by becoming CEO of Primamec in
2017. A friend was responsible of this "change-of-life" for him and
ultimately for the company. But it was a change in the sign of continuity,
because history is capitalised and becomes fuel to set in motion new projects,
innovative ideas, unthinkable solutions. And basically to rewrite new chapters.
We are in Funo, a hamlet of Argelato, a town of five thousand souls in the
metropolitan area of Bologna, a stone's throw from Bentivoglio. This is where
Primamec is based, a mechanical company founded in 1971 thanks to the vision of
Gianni Ricci. At the time it was called Torneria Automatica Gianni Ricci and it
dealt with turning in mechanical processing, by creating precision parts on
design. A company with an artisanal dimension, but with a constant growth in
the name of innovation. Perhaps this was the winning recipe first, but also
later, to expand the customer portfolio, which was made up of companies of
excellence in the hydraulic, automotive, earth-moving and agricultural
machinery sectors. The second life of the company began in 2017 with the
transfer of ownership and with a mission that was already part of the excellent
performance: to differentiate the offer, to expand the agreements with
customers, to improve the management systems, and to focus on
internationalisation. In short, a managerial leap in a reality with family
roots. Today the
company has a turnover of 9 million and has 52 employees, while in 2017 there
were about thirty people and 12% dedicated to exports. «I found a solid company made up of competent and passionate professionals.
Over the years, Ricci increased the turnover from 0 to 5 million euros, a
significant figure. The team I found here is still with me, they have a lot of
experience and I trust them. I brought my skills. I didn't know how to be an
entrepreneur, but I had always been involved in operations and manufacturing
and I sensed that the automation and integration of IT systems could be the
winning key», specifies Lupi. Then came
the Industry 4.0, with that drive to become digital and to look beyond. The company
still manufactures today precision mechanical components for third parties:
still today most of the products involve mechanical processing, but also a
series of additional processing, finishing and grinding operations.
The strength of the team. Over fifty years of experience in mechanical
processing and everything still starts with people, who make the difference.
Perhaps this is precisely the secret behind the success of one of the most
virtuous districts in the world, in this heart of the motor valley that beats
with passion. The strength of the team also reverberates in the rebranding. «Primamec was born with them in a
brainstorming, it is the shared name. It wasn't even the name I preferred, but
now I like it a lot and it is pronounced well in several languages», specifies Lupi. The added value is achieved
thanks to a network of specialised suppliers. Because the product is made in
house, but then the vertical realities make it at the forefront of heat
treatments and special finishes. There are many and they form a winning,
reticular ecosystem. Research is linked to the process, to the ideal system for
the customer. «There is not a single
model for everyone, often our business starts with the involvement of customers
because the goal is to do series production»,
says Lupi. Hence, the part of co-design, with moments of confrontation between
the company's engineers and the final customers to achieve the maximum
production efficiency and to reduce the cost of the product.
The new idea of turning. Then there is the turnery, which is the heart of this company: here
there are over two thousand different items, for about thirty customers, and almost 10 million pieces
are produced and handled every year. The numbers are relevant. Yet the
difference is made in a few
seconds linked to the product cycle. The details of how these individual
pieces are manipulated and followed up are at stake. «There is no machine that
always does the same things. Every time you start a new production you have to
be good at standardising the process in a continuous change. Today all our
machines are connected to the computer system and have a touch screen monitor
on board for set-up and controls. We have also decided to bring the industry
4.0 to all of the company's machines, even to those that are more than twenty
years old»,
specifies Lupi. For some time here we have been talking about soft skills,
which are essential in the preparation work. There is also a new concept of
widespread leadership and of sharing of responsibilities. Because the obsolete
model of the past was centred on the figure of the head of the department or
head of production, and today it is played as a team. «One of the most important
soft skills for our people today is the ability to adapt, which equals
flexibility and that is the opposite of turning, an environment with strict and
hyper-structured rules», says Lupi. So in Primamec we work differently. In a
turnery, the technological and human components work synergistically, but the
latter remains fundamental, despite the attempts made to bring information into
a complex system. It is the individual who drives the car. And even more the
team. On the other hand, masterpieces are really made up of details.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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