Measuring solutions MERMEC

MEASURING

SOLUTIONS

MERMEC is a world leader and innovator specialising in the supply of integrated solutions for diagnostics, signalling and asset management to railways and rapid transit worldwide. MERMEC has its headquarters in Monopoli (Bari) and employs more than 450 highly skilled professionals across its 16 facilities throughout the world. Barbara Rossi spoke to Luciano Marton, Industrial Business Unit director, to find out more.

Luciano Marton provvisorio

Mermec was established in 1988. Its activity has evolved from the design and production of mechanical solutions for agriculture into leading technologies for diagnostics, mainly for the railway sector. Thanks to a series of acquisitions completed in Italy, France and the USA in 2008, the group is now an international organisation with a permanent presence and sites in 14 countries, while also serving customers in another 55 countries thanks to partnerships and collaborations. It operates in very well-identified niche sectors, offering a unique product portfolio of measuring systems and vehicles, as well as decision support tools and automatic train protection technology. It operates through five business units: Measuring Trains & Systems, Asset Maintenance Systems, Measuring Services, Railway Signalling, Steel & Industrial Applications. It holds several certifications, including the ISO 14001 environmental standard, invests 12 per cent of its turnover in R&D on an annual basis and has a track record of more than 700 installed measuring systems all over the world.

One of its divisions, the Morgano-Treviso site, is mainly focused on the industrial sector, supplying optoelectronic measuring technology to the steel sector (rolling mills and forges), as well as to some new industrial business segments.

Italian market leader

All production takes place at the Italian sites, while the foreign subsidiaries offer a range of commercial and support services, including project management, installation, maintenance and after-sales support. All the solutions for the Industrial business unit are produced at the Treviso site, in north-eastern Italy, where Mermec SpA – which is specialised in the Industrial division range – is based. The group acquired this activity in 2008, when it took over Tecnogamma, subsequently renamed Mermec SpA. While the Industrial unit traditionally supplied industrial diagnostic systems for the steel sector, today it has broadened its boundaries to include other market segments

Mr Marton explains, “We do not manufacture metals. Traditionally, we take care of the dimensional control needs of the steel sector (including those related to products for railways). Our competitive advantage derives from our capacity to provide suitably accurate measuring solutions (including sensors, cameras and optical systems supplying real time information) for steel industry applications. Specifically, these are hot and cold inspection systems for the comprehensive dimensional measurement of hot rolled long products with complex profiles, seamless rolled rings and mono-block wheels, open die forgings such as forged bars and large forgings, hot long-rolled parts, rolled rings, mono-bloc wheels and open die forgings. The production processes for these steel applications take place in hostile environments, with significant temperature fluctuations, high levels of dust and vibrations. All these factors can present issues for the optical and electronic solutions employed in measuring systems, but we have the expertise to supply effective solutions which provide accurate measuring with an accuracy of a hundredth of a millimetre. They include our own proprietary optoelectronic architectures equipped with special laser cameras. While these are traditionally suitable for the railway and steel sectors, in recent years we have also acquired clients in the biomedical and we are going to provide new solutions to lean logistics segments.”

He goes on: “We have an industrial culture and if we identify a market segment which can benefit from our range in significant volumes, we develop a customised version of our solutions to fulfil its needs. We tailor our solutions according to segments, not individual customers, because we do not want to lose our focus. A few years ago we surveyed different markets to identify potential opportunities and, as a result, have widened our client segment boundaries.”

Mr Marton has a positive outlook on the future of the Industrial business unit, which he sees linked to a world mega-trend towards more efficient production processes, fewer errors and lower costs. All of these factors, which in turn are also connected to environmen-

tal sustainability, are empowered by the company’s measuring solutions, thanks to which it is possible to achieve lower waste, reduce energy consumption, use fewer materials and decrease the amount of reprocessing necessary to fix mistakes, as well as increase product quality and customer satisfaction.

Mermec has experienced a positive growth trend for a number of years and its production sites could easily accommodate higher volumes. In terms of geographic expansion, the company sets no boundaries. “Making a distinction between mature and emerging markets is too difficult. Both might experience lack of growth or feature expansion in some specific sectors to increase the efficiency of production processes. We are continuously engaged in researching new possible markets, both at geographical and segment levels. Last year our business unit did particularly well in Kazakhstan, thanks to local partnerships. Currently, as well as operating strongly in Europe, the US and China, we keep a watchful eye on East Asia, Russia and the rest of eastern Europe.”

Synergy with customers and suppliers

“For us the reliability of our solutions and their delivery times is a must. Our suppliers, which owing to the complexity of our work provide us with both components and services, contribute to allowing us to offer such a high service level to our customers, by delivering the same to us. We have key partnerships with some of them, especially those who are relatively near, in terms of innovation and developing new solutions. We are always working on improving measuring precision and accuracy in order to fulfil the needs of an ever evolving market.”

As mentioned, Mermec has always been strongly committed to R&D and works in collaboration with its main clients and some of the major European universities. Major investments are made in this area, especially in terms of human resources. “We have a focus on human resources to achieve innovation. We believe that in order to keep on succeeding we need to have skilled, knowledgeable and intelligent staff, equipped with a true team spirit.”

A strong drive towards growth and innovation comes from working in synergy with clients who have high expectations, as these partnerships stimulate Mermec to find new solutions. “We have customers with whom we have been working for years, but who present ever-evolving needs.”

The Mermec Group is part of the Angelo Investment Group – http://www.angeloinv.com/ – which operates in a number of hi-tech sectors all over the world and comprises companies such as Blackshape (aviation) and Sitael (aerospace). While the Industrial business unit expects to grow organically, future acquisitions cannot be ruled out at group level. n