“Inventory optimization, cost reductions, major energy efficiency and digital transformation”: these are the characteristics of Vimi Fasteners’ new plant, which aligns with the evolutions of the business and of industry 4.0 and always keeping the environment in the highest regard.
With the expansion of the plant we have implemented a new production process prioritizing our workforce as well as the environment and preparing the road for our future digital transformation developments”, declares the CEO Marco Sargenti.
Digital transformation will be the production competitive leverage, always looking ahead to artificial intelligence and to an ecologic and energetic transition. The digital realm, the new engine of the future introduces new models produced with less resource consumption and by making manufacturing more productive and sustainable. The investment is part of the growth strategy of the company and it will allow a substantial intensification of Vimi’ s competitiveness on its markets.
The new vertical automated warehouse, with approximately 2000 available spaces, will guarantee optimized management of finished and semi-finished goods. In addition, it will add a dedicated area to the stocking of raw materials, final sorting, packaging and shipping of the final products.
“The investment will allow reduced operational costs, supply chain management improvements and shortened production lead times for our customers that will also benefit our working capital”.
“Following the expansion of the production areas we have also restructured around the exterior of the plant and the movement of the raw materials in order to have a better and simpler production flow.”, continues Sargenti.
In the new production area, we have also introduced new technologies for cold forming and thread rolling that will allow us to offer a wider range of products to our customers with the objective of increasing our sales volumes.
As previously stated, the improvement of plant productivity is not the only benefit, better energy efficiency will also be achieved in line with our sustainable growth strategy while putting emphasis on the environment.
“We have installed a photovoltaic system with new generation panels to produce electrical energy that after just one year from implementation it has generated a reduction of CO2 emissions of 348000 Kg, this was achieved with maximum attention given to the environment” explains the CEO.
The electrical energy produced is set to self-consumption 90% of the time letting the company reduce the cost of its energy bill while respecting the environment.
The new production area was built targeting an improved thermal insulation and boosting all building comforts like insulated doors, windows, double doors and panels in addition to low energy use lighting and new lockers. All these enhancements helped us achieve Class A2 energy certification.
Lastly, the expansion of the production area gave us the opportunity to install a high-speed Dual Band Wi-Fi making our infostructure up to speed with digital transformation requirements.
“This investment – concludes Marco Sargenti – represents a very important step towards the development of key projects for Industry 4.0. We upgraded our IT infostructure to allow a faster transfer of large amounts of data in view of upcoming changes such as the installation of our new high- tech cells equipped with AGV and collaborative robots”.