Mechanical Engineering Construction & Machining

One of the strategies, which led to excellent results in terms of production optimization and searching for new prospects is the one Galbiati Group introduced in collaboration with RDI, Staufen and Ecipa Lombardia, in a conference which saw the participation of  Sebastiano Barisoni. (Il Sole 24 Ore) as moderator and Professor Alberto Portioli from the Milan Institute of Technology, explained the principles of lean production and innovative communication to the public.

The event was an opportunity to introduce new approaches such as lean production and web marketing from theoretical and academic points of view, thanks to the beautiful presentation by Prof. Alberto Portioli as well as from a more practical perspective.

In the pictures: on the left Prof. Alberto Portioli from the Milan Institute of Technology, on the right Pietro Galbiati (Galbiati Group) and Sebastiano Barisoni (Il Sole 24 Ore).

The main participants in the meeting were: Pietro Galbiati, the Chief Executive Officer of Group Srl, David Gaensbacher, the CEO of Staufen Italia Srl, Giovanni Rossi, the Chief Executive Officer of RDI Srl, Erasmo Corbella, the Director of Ecipa Lombardia Formazione.

In the picture: from the right, Erasmo Corbella (Ecipa Lombardia), Giovanni Rossi (RDI), David Gaensbacher (Staufen), Pietro Galbiati (Galbiati Group) and Sebastiano Barisoni (Il Sole 24 Ore).

Barisoni touched on many different points, asking all those involved in Galbiati’s case History to describe why the need for such a radical transformation arose. They were also asked to report the results achieved up to that point and those achievable in the near future on the one hand and, on the other, the difficulties and obstacles encountered in the renewal process and how they overcame them.

“Since 2003 Galbiati Group has been growing exponentially both in terms of revenue and in terms of capacity and human resources: we needed someone to guide us, organize us and assign individual responsibilities and duties within our company” Pietro Galbiati explained, “This was a traditional company where everyone did everything and, despite everyone working extremely hard, the results were poor”.

In contrast to many other companies who were not able to overcome the negative aspects of a decreasing turnover, Galbiati Group decided to go beyond, to change by taking the most difficult route: this involved investing even more, even in times of economic crisis, improving our efficiency and optimizing company procedures and taking every sales opportunity in an organised way. “So”, Pietro Galbiati continued, “I contacted three consultants in order to reduce waste and optimize production”.

“Our aim was to develop our resources through training, defining responsibilities and duties and improving the company’s organisation and production. This is how we approached Galbiati’s case”, explained David Gaensbacher, CEO Staufen Italia Srl, “We tried to introduce the principles of Lean Production (as it was done with Toyota in the 80’s) by reducing waste and making considerable savings in time and resources management costs. We improved the working environment by restoring it to a clean and tidy condition, we strengthened our relationships with suppliers by enabling just-in-time orders. We reorganised the assembly area by assigning individual responsibilities and tasks and set up an interdepartmental communication system as well as enforcing the punctuality of each employee”.

In this way we achieved some interesting results: our efficiency in terms of assembly and installations increased by 28% and the efficiency of our machining processes grew by 12%.

Whilst improving Galbiati Group’s internal procedures, the company needed to find a different way of promoting itself abroad, by making the most of business opportunities available. In an economic climate where placing orders was getting more difficult every day, it was essential to make the most of marketing activities and to focus on new channels, making the investment in communication activities one of the key elements of Galbiati’s business strategy.

“We created 5 different websites for each of Galbiati’s product categories, in the form of Blogs, which are constantly updated with company and product news. The information obtained through accessing these websites is analysed statistically and the companies who access them are contacted. The web is an excellent means for making first contact with a client” explained Giovanni Rossi, managing director of RDI, who through significant web marketing and branding initiatives was able to promote the company’s image in Europe and worldwide.

Results obtained: 4.000.000 euro deriving from quotes related to web operations from January 2011 from Austria, Brazil, China, France, India, Italy, Switzerland and Turkey together with an increase in international hits on its website, these went from the 54 Countries of July 2010 to the current 102, allowing the identification of over 2.000 companies, 10% of which are rated as prospective clients.

These initiatives to improve production, brand reputation and communication were also possible thanks to the funding provided by Ecipa Lombardia.

This is where the third consultant comes into play, Erasmo Corbella, director of Ecipa Lombardia Formazione, “I researched the calls for tenders funded by public bodies for training and corporate improvement. I submitted the application and obtained a loan of 90 thousands Euros”.

We encountered many difficulties and obstacles in transforming the company’s internal procedures, especially when it came to convincing employees to change the way they worked. However, Pietro Galbiati’s enthusiasm and obstinacy led the way.

“The important thing is to believe in it and never give up” Pietro Galbiati concluded with the cheers and applause of all those present.

For further information, please see also:

Lean Production and Web Marketing: Galbiati Group’s anti-crisis recipe