Technowrapp: on the path to Lean Transformation

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Technowrapp is a company set up in 2002 by expert engineers specialized in manufacturing stretch wrappers for palletized loads. Two are the distinguishing features of the company: the first is a precise and competent assessment of customers’ needs aimed at providing a custom tailored machine at an excellent quality-price ratio; the second is its capacity to provide fast and efficient aftersales services, both direct and tele-assisted. Its market is widespread and includes 48 countries all over the world. In 2005 Technowrapp has been certified UNI EN ISO 9001:2000, now 9001:2008 with TÜV RHEINLAND.

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In November 2011, Davide Ceccarelli, CEO of the company, attended a Master Class on Lean Organization held by GC&P and Reviviscar from which he got many useful ideas for his company. He then tried to involve his people in the implementation of a new lean manufacturing model. One of the difficulties they found was the seasonal fluctuation of sales and production which during high season didn’t leave time to people to work on innovation projects and caused many additional problems in manufacturing and purchasing.

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The project, which took about two months to be completed, had as its main objective the definition of a future state for the whole company which included all productive and logistic aspects (plant layout, procurement, warehouse management, technical design etc.). Layout: the layout of the plant as well as that of the warehouse have been revised. In particular an area has been created to store those articles that for various reasons (dimension, seasonal fluctuations etc,) were traditionally placed at random wherever space was available. The work was done in a number of steps. First of all we had to draw a spaghetti chart in order to understand how materials moved inside the plant. Then we made an ABC analysis of the products in order to identify the machines that really needed dedicated areas. Furthermore we evaluated the implementation of 5S methodology and the creation of supermarkets for high consumption parts. Procurement: the whole purchasing process has been revised and new conditions have been negotiated with vendors. We have also identified the parts for which blanket orders can be useful and those for which a kanban supply system is applicable. Technical design department: New logics of standardization of components like screws, loglines etc. have been identified and the logic of bills of materials has been revised. New methods for planning and managing innovation projects have been defined.

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Once the future state has been designed four projects have been launched in the four critical areas: layout rationalization, procurement, warehouse management and technical design. For each of these projects we have defined KPI’s (performance measurements which previously did not exist) in order to monitor the progress made and the results achieved by each project. These projects will implement the guidelines contained in the future state along a path of continuous improvement which is both clear and shared by all the personnel.