GREEN MANUFACTURING: FROM PRODUCT-DRIVEN TO DATA-DRIVEN

The Dico Group’s precision machining specialist Andi-Mec is spearheading this transformation to become a Data-Driven Factory in pursuit of sustainability. This Green objective, and not only, has been achieved thanks to the adoption of cutting-edge machines and of an ultramodern factory information system (Manufacturing Execution System, MES).

A VISIONARY PATH INSPIRED BY OUR FOUNDER VITTORIO GRANDI

Since our founder Vittorio Grandi’s untimely passing in 2015, the companies in the Dico Service Network have had to commit themselves to the generational transition that he himself had pointed to: “It must be not so much a transition from parents to children as, rather, a matter of giving our companies the conditions for having a future.”

In just a few years, business plans oriented towards implementing methods and technologies in step with the times have been grafted upon a deeply rooted culture of craftsmanship. Of the companies that form the DICO Group today, Andi-Mec is the one with the greatest impact on the environment from the standpoint of production.

Devoted as always to precision machining works, the company has acquired cutting-edge machinery and an ultramodern factory information system (Manufacturing Execution System, MES), with the precise objective of managing this generational transition.

FROM FACTORY 4.0 TO MEASURING CO2 EMISSIONS

From factory 4.0 to measuring CO2 emissions during production processes, with the aim of improving the environmental impact of its productions. This is the goal achieved by Andi-Mec – Dico Group.

The environmental impact study was made possible thanks to a research project developed in partnership with the University of Bologna’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Turtle, a University spin-off.

Algorithms were developed that can monitor all process parameters, and in particular those that play a fundamental role in ecological impact:

• energy consumption
• waste production
• transport
• packaging

WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF A SUSTAINABILITY-ORIENTED FACTORY?

The goals achieved so far by our Data-Driven Factory are all oriented towards sustainability:

SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

We would like to make work more interesting for new generations.
Today, young people joining Andi-Mec no longer have to face a long period of working alongside their more senior co-workers in order to assimilate their experience. After a few weeks of familiarization, MES allows them to access all the information they need in order to do their work.
All instructions are easily retrieved, and every worker can communicate his or her observations and propose changes.

Economic sustainability

Today, we can base our productive choice on clear and certain key performance indicators (KPIs).
In fact, every machine tool is linked directly to the MES and provides operating data that allow the following to be monitored in real time:

• the machines’ yields (monitored by the workers themselves)
• the systems’ degrees of saturation (followed by production planning)
• the products’ costs (monitored by management)

The monitoring of these data has led to sharply improved profit margins in our income statement.

Environmental sustainability

This is the heart of our transformation process and of our change from “product-driven” to “data-driven”.

Today, with each machined piece, we can provide Customers with all the information on its production process, thus affording the possibility of pinpointing critical areas, weaknesses, and opportunities to improve their products.

In other words, for each produced piece, we can provide the Carbon Footprint, which is to say the amount of CO2 generated by its production process.

A MODEL THAT CAN BE SHARED WITH ALL THE COMPANIES IN ITALY’S PACKAGING VALLEY SUPPLY CHAIN

Our production model is open, scalable, and easy to replicate.
We make it available to our Customers, of course.
We are not only an outsourcer that has evolved in industrial terms during these decades. Our goal is to be the ideal partner for Packaging Valley companies that wish take their products down the path of change towards sustainability.

At the same time, we see ourselves as a company that can also be an example to be emulated by everyone working in our sector. Only together, only if the entire supply chain adopts evolved, environment-oriented processes, can we make the difference and carry out more sustainable machining work.

Useful Links

You can find the Proceedings of the conference organized by the University of Bologna in which Andimec presented his production model here