smart manufacturing spreads its wings
Smart Manufacturing Spreads Its Wings
and Begins to Soar
S
omaschini SpA (Trescore Balneario, Italy; www.somaschini. com/en) has been making gears in Northern Italy outside Bergamo since 1922 through four generations of entrepreneurs. In 2012, that mission finally brought Somaschini to the United States, at the request of a customer, Daimler AG, which needed the company known for its high quality ground gears to supply its heavy-duty truck production in North America. Since then, Somaschini has invested $22 million in South Bend, Indiana, where it built a 50,000-square-foot smart manufacturing facility. It now has the capacity to churn out 70,000 gears per month with just 30 employees who rely on sophisticated machine tools, automation, metrology and software for high volume production. “Everybody can buy a good machine—we know how to use it consistently,” said Chief Executive Officer Dr. Andrea Scanavini.
8
Defining “smart manufacturing” can be a challenge in itself, but it’s newer approach that calls for the integration of machines, tools, automation, sensors and equipment that is, in and of itself, more advanced than before.
By Dean Bartles Contributing Editor
The company’s smart manufacturing approach helps it deliver what Scanavini called “constant quality,” which is measured in a defect rate consistently under 50 PPM annually. He noted that the company’s metrology and technical office also plays a big role in the family-owned company. In South Bend, the company largely supplies gears for heavy duty vehicles, but it recently secured business for a light vehicle line, too. Globally, the company produces cylindrical ground gears, ground beveloid gears, ground scissor gears, among other products. It is a member of ASSIOT - The Italian Transmission Elements and Gear Manufacturers Association (www.assiot.it), and in addition to automotive customers, which make up 80% of its business, the company also supplies gears globally to the power transmission, robotics, agricultural and industrial sectors.
Volume XI | www.machinesitalia.org
