Cutting it Officine Vica

CUTTING IT

Precise and flexible metal cutting expert Officine Vica Spa has continually expanded and developed since it was founded in 1936. Emma-Jane Batey spoke to business and product development director Fabio Meggiolaro to find out how this is being achieved.

Founded in Italy in 1936, Officine Vica SpA was initially established to create machine components for the aeronautical industry. Continuing to develop its roster of products within the precision and performance applications, the company gradually added the automotive and trucks industries to its growing customer base. With agricultural applications and appliances joining in the 70s and 80s, its reputation as a high quality creator of metal cutting processes was more than secure.

Business and product development manager Fabio Meggiolaro spoke to Industry Europe to explain how the company’s solid and steady development has helped to cement its reputation for excellence. He said, “Our continual development and ongoing investment in our people and our facilities has played an important role in our success. Officine Vica has kept expanding in line with our customers’ needs and the market requirements. By 1990 we were a leading company in the supply of mechanical components for automotive applications and in 2000 we built a brand new, state-of-the-art plant, with the very latest production processes all available under one roof. It is developments like these that have characterised our positive growth and our ability to stay at the forefront of our industry.” Consistent growth

With Officine Vica establishing a new management structure in 2010 and acquiring a plant in Poland in 2011, its long-term promise of offering a ‘high performance, low cost, best service, close to the customer’ provision is assured. Mr Meggiolaro continued, “Our growth has been consistent thanks to our strategic assessment of everything we do – from what we make to who we make it for to where we sell it. Our annual turnover now stands at €135 million, with an annual investment in progress of at least seven per cent to keep us at the top of our game.”

This 2014 turnover figure was achieved through a mix of agricultural (43 per cent), truck (42 per cent) and automotive (13 per cent) sales, with other customers making up the remaining two per cent. In terms of geography, 48 per cent was achieved through domestic Italian customers, 38 per cent across the rest of Europe and 14 per cent from America. Mr Meggiolaro added, “It is clear that our Italian customers are very important to us and the ongoing success of our business but we are also focused on growing throughout Europe and maximising the opportunities available in the US.”

Officine Vica employs nearly 450 people and invests heavily in their skills and training. It offers a broad range of design, product development and prototyping services, including black box development, extensive CAD, process development, rapid prototyping management and excellent time-to-market compression. Mr Meggiolaro noted, “We strive to be the supplier of choice for OEM and systems suppliers in the development and production of innovative mechanical components with a high technological component. Our mission is to ensure that our customers and potential customers know that working with Officine Vica is a smooth, reliable process that meets all their precision metal cutting needs.”

The production processes at Officine Vica are very much at the heart of the company’s strong results. Mr Meggiolaro explained, “Our plants are homogenous for production processes in order to optimise logistics and process flow. This also promotes the development of our very robust company philosophy that is founded on quality and productivity in everything we do. Throughout our plant we perform all the main metal cutting processes as well as other technical processes in order to operate with the utmost flexibility and to maintain control throughout the whole production process. We know that our customers appreciate this control as we are able to guarantee every step of the process, starting with the differential carrier machining to the CNC machining to the tooling set-up right through to the pressure testing and the electro chemical deburring. It all happens in-house to the very highest European and global standards.”

The highest standards

The Officine Vica product portfolio for cars, trucks and agricultural applications includes engines, transmissions, driveline suspension and body parts, available in both standard and tailor-made solutions. Continuous improvement also comes as standard across the range, with the ISO 9001 and ISO TS 16949 certifications in place. n