The importance of having Lean Business Processes, Agile Organisation Capabilities, and Targeted Investments, for steady Business Growth and a company that stays ahead of the curve. We discuss these topics with Mattia Vandi, Supply Chain Manager for Baltur.

When did you join Baltur?

I joined Baltur in August of 2022, after almost 17 years working for two American Multinationals, the last one operating in the Renewable Energy and Mechanical Transmission sector.

I decided to accept the challenge proposed to me by Baltur: to launch a series of reviews and implementations of Operating Processes structured from a Lean Manufacturing perspective, within the Supply Chain and Operations areas, in order to mitigate the global issues that arose during the pandemic and with the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.

After many years in the international arena, I also chose Italian-ness as a motivating factor, because I believe that a well-established company like Baltur has a lot to offer on the broad international Market on which it operates.

Where have you been focusing your activities up until now?

Following an initial period of observing the current processes and interactions, we developed a “List of Priorities,” after which, in collaboration with the Management and my own team, an actionable Roadmap was created, which laid out the goals to be achieved along with the presumed time frames.

I believe that sharing a Roadmap is crucial, because having common goals is a great way to engage and motivate the team.

Starting with an internal reorganisation, the main activities consisted of the implementation/review of the operational indicators and metrics (the KPIs), incorporating the regular discussion of opportunities for improvement with the goal of enhancing accountability.
We immediately introduced Lean tools and processes, establishing a Project Management Model (with an Action Plan) in order to manage the critical medium- to long-term Projects involving multiple entities.

Have you introduced new Corporate tools?

In collaboration with the Italian and Foreign Sales Department, we have reinstated and improved a fundamental cutting-edge tool for Sales management and forecasting, the Demand & Inventory Planner, which was “tailor-made” by a specialised external company.

We recently implemented Sales & Operations (S&OP) Planning for sharing Sales and Operations strategies.

In the Production department, we will be making two major investments for 2024: the first is the upgrade of the second Burner Testing booth, in order to avoid bottlenecks and increase production output; and the second is the implementation of the M.E.S. (Manufacturing Execution System), for the collection and analytical management of the Production data.

We are also strengthening our strategic partnerships with several Suppliers, increasingly pushing for an efficient S-Q-D-C-I (Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost, Inventory) management model, both internally and externally, in order to remain constantly competitive on the Market, and to continuously improve our Customer Service Levels.

What do you think is the best strategic approach for the future?

Certainly an approach and an organisation that takes into account and ensures a proper balance of the following three fundamental elements: People, Processes, and Performance. Success always depends on these three basic factors, each of which is a natural consequence of the other two.

I believe that, for a company of Baltur’s size, it is essential to be both agile and organised at the same time, working as a team, evaluating the results, and striving for continuous improvement.

The constraints imposed by globalisation have changed over the past four years, and the effects on the supply chains need to be addressed quickly. It’s important to be able to rethink your strategies.

From a practical standpoint, we will be focused on monitoring and balancing the production cycles and the relevant Production scheduling, in order to optimise our internal and external Value Stream, focusing greater attention on so-called Non-Standard Finished Products (for large systems based on Customer specifications), while at the same time remaining attentive to the Safety aspects.

We will also be investing in Training, in order to offer our Human Resources the opportunity to improve both their technical and communication skills.