Presses and Notching Machines

The Galbiati case is still school: following the event of the last July 8th 2011 it was now the venue for the 21 Assiot affiliates whose Galbiati case history was presented, in cooperation with Staufen, on Friday October 28th 2011.

Optimization of production and lean production were the issues covered during the event, both on a theoretical and academic point of view thanks to the great presentation of Dott. Giancarlo Oriani, managing director of Staufen Italia, and on a practical one, through the visit to the facility by all Assiot affiliates (mechanical workshop and assembly department).

Many aspects have been touched by Mr. Oriani, who first explained to all players the Galbiati case, namely the origin of the need for a radical renewal process, and then illustrated the results obtained so far and achievable in near future, but also presented difficulties and resistances encountered in the process of renewal and above all how they were overcome.

From 2003 onwards, in fact, Galbiati Group has undergone an exponential growth both in terms of turnover and in terms of production capacity and human resources: it’s now detected the need of a guide, of an action outside the company, able to implement a better organization, assigning responsibilities and duties. Galbiati appeared at the time as an artisan company, still based on a familiar pattern, where everyone did everything and although working was very hard, efficiency was not always accompanied by its effectiveness.

Thus it’s explained the intervention of Staufen at Galbiati, with a work schedule of 12 months, oriented to the discipline and principles of Lean Production.

First visits by Staufen at Galbiati had highlighted a series of issues which can be summarized in the need for the company to improve its organization, to increase effectiveness (on time performance as a competition factor and elimination of penalties) and efficiency (reduction of overall costs against an equal output). They were also identified some areas for potential improvement, such as the flow of materials, tidiness and cleanliness in the factory and the overall management of the orders.

The concept of Lean Production, which recalls the case of Toyota in the ’80s, is the most actual form of production with Nippon origin which uses the tools of total quality and of the “just in time”.
Base concept of the Lean Production is that the complexity is in fact a cost.  It’s therefore worth to re-consider in a global way the overall production process, involving within the decisional process, since its first stage, all the functions present within a company.  Considering the product as a value, reduces costs, eliminates wastages, leads to a reduction of complexity in the production, made more flexible, resulting in optimum use of facilities, reduction of time of storage in the warehouses, improvement of design studies and rationalization of the supply.
As the Lean Production is based on an increased attention to the customers’ needs, it’s set up as a necessary choice for each company focused onto total quality.

“We tried to establish the tenets of Lean Production”, explains Mr. Oriani “systematically implementing tidiness and cleanliness in the workshop and assembly area, introducing the concept of strong long term partnerships with suppliers, reorganizing wisely micro and macro areas designated to assembly and mechanical processing, streamlining the process of fulfilling orders, improving activities of the technical department and, finally, defining a new organization for the improvement of the production process.” Reducing wastages, achieving considerable savings in terms of time and resource management, we improved the work environment by establishing cleaning and tidiness and empowered the relations with suppliers by establishing just in time contracts. We have also reorganized the assembly area, setting tasks and responsibilities of each one and set up an internal communication between departments, demanding, finally, punctuality in work from every single resource.”

The results obtained after a year of working and cooperation with Staufen have been fully admired by all Assiot affiliates: work areas (workshop, assembly) have been arranged according to the principles of the 5 S (Seiri整理 = clear,  Seiton漢字 =  set up, Seiso清楚= shine, Seiketsu漢字= standardize, Shitsuke漢字= support and improve standards), areas have been organized, the equipment in the areas of assembly and processing with the definition of internal product flows, defined the roles and responsibilities within the structure, through training that involved most of the Galbiati staff.

Impressive results have been therefore achieved: an improvement of 28% for the efficiency of assembly terms and plants and of the 12% within the efficiency of mechanical processing.

“Within six months, we achieved a significant increase in the quality both in the organization and in the maintenance of tidiness and cleanliness in the workshop, a change that is then reflected on the quality and value of the product,” explains Ivan Folla, the commercial director of Galbiati Group.

The meeting concluded with a warm applause from the Assiot members and Staufen affiliates for Pietro Galbiati, General Manager of Galbiati Group, for making this possible, for turning own workshop into an organized and structured company and for the approval granted by Hatebur and Siemens Vai for Galbiati as Best Supplier of the Year.