Welding, assistance on die casting moulds, foundry, carpentry and precision mechanical processing. A company engaged in precision mechanics was founded in the Ferrara area, twenty years ago. Giampaolo Colletti interviews Elisa Dondi, head of Tool-Mec, for FARE INSIEME
by Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Photocredit: Giacomo Maestri e Francesca Aufiero
Distinguishing marks: to be enthusiastic. If for every company there was a sort of identity card – and after all there already is, you can read it in the pages of the balance sheet or the website – the one we are about to tell you about would look like this. Which might sound bizarre because in this case we are talking about mechanics. To be precise, mechanics… of precision. Now, leaving aside the play on words of this company we can only tell that strenuous passion is combined with a strong competence. Because ultimately it is this mix that allows us to face even the most stormy business phases, those experienced in the past and those that are revealed in a very complex present.
Company profile. But let's proceed in order. The story we are about to tell is that of Tool-Mec. It all began exactly twenty years ago, that is, in 2005, which had recently marked the entrance into the new century. The company became a qualified supplier in the production of high-precision mechanical components, therefore in the pursuit of excellence, offering products that met customer expectations. We are in Sant'Agostino, a hamlet with less than seven thousand inhabitants in the municipality of Terre del Reno. We are in the Ferrara area, a short distance from Cento. The team is made up of five professionals, for a size tailored to the needs, ready to intervene promptly and with transversal skills, having different production divisions within it: welding, assistance on die casting moulds, foundry, carpentry and precision mechanical processing. Currently the market is the Italian one with a clientele located in Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Lombardy, and Campania. These are mainly groups with a significant turnover, while that of Tool-Mec is just over a million euros. Here we offer solutions for the maintenance of moulds and carpentry, milling and turning processes. It all started from the experience of a historic company in the Bologna area founded to design moulds and cutters. From the moulds, the shapes are given to the various pieces for that equipment that allows industrial processes to be carried out. Tool-Mec's maintenance ranges from the maintenance of cutters that cut jam jars for the food industry to that of moulds and cutters for the die casting industry. Well, from those shapes are born those products that we all consume every day, but also, for example, those aluminium castings that are part of cars or jet skis or even the dashboards for motorcycle sleds. So to make a long story short: here are forged those materials from the various industrial districts, which then take shape. «We have had many difficult moments. A major crisis in 2009, another with the earthquake in 2012 and the current automotive crisis, certainly the heaviest from an economic point of view. Now, we are managing the latter with a new approach and organisation. Today we are in a very particular historical moment, I would say unique with the crisis of the foundries and the automotive sector. Training is fundamental, which represents a mandatory piece to offer the market effective solutions and organisations.» Elisa Dondi, head of Tool-Mec, does not mince her words, with a diploma in accounting and a degree in political science in her pocket, then the responsibility of personnel and accounting. People and balance sheets, passions and numbers. Two sides of the same coin to be preserved to aim for excellence. Her analysis is frank, sincere, passionate, as is the work she has been carrying out for many years together with the team and those customers who operate in the fittings, plastics production, and automatic warehouses sector. «We are suppliers of equipment in the construction sector, we supply parts for the agricultural sector. Our services essentially concern the maintenance of moulds, light carpentry and welding», Dondi specifies.
Technologies and people. From the jobs to those who carry them out, with those passionate and competent professional profiles that make up the team. They are specialised workers, welders, turners, maintenance experts, and programmers. «For everyone, training is continuous both in the field, that is, from a colleague with greater seniority to a colleague who has just joined the team, and with external training, relying on external bodies especially concerning the mechanical sector, with practically annual updates. In the past, we provided training by interacting directly with our client's technical office so that we could respond in the most complete, appropriate and fast way to their specific needs», says Dondi. Training continues to make the difference, as does the team. Because the district counts in terms of speed and competitiveness. Once again, the response to the crisis comes from teamwork, even between different teams.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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