Page 18 - Machines Italia Vol. XIII Next Generation Manufacturing

DATA STRATEGIES
through to the technical director and production manager, from labora- tory technicians to the quality department, and even top management.” Talking about some of the benefits that Prime can guarantee to the production process, she explained, “Just think that in October (2019) alone we produced over 130 different items! People working in our sec- tor will know just how difficult it is to manage such a wide range of prod- ucts. This is just one of the many demonstrations of the high levels of flexibility and performance offered by Prime, which processes data in order to provide the information we need to make strategically impor- tant decisions. In some departments, product changeover is done with a click, something that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.”
System Ceramics’ Prime software, a highly integrated and connected manufacturing operations management system, offers complete visibility of a factory’s production processes, with the aim of constantly improving production performances.
Catti related how she uses Prime to inform her customers about their orders produced by Mariner, giving them actual data: “Regard- less of where I am in the world, I can show my customers the state of production in real time and display ... information such as yields, tones, problems encountered and defects. It’s an authentic digital twin of the factory. The response from my customers has been extraordinary.
“With Prime it was love at first sight. We are proud of what we have achieved so far in our local area, with our own workforce and with a leading technological partner like System Ceramics.” She went on to note that Mariner represents a state-of-the-art industrial proj- ect, a true Industry 4.0 and 100% digitized manufacturing operation. “System Ceramics has created a powerful system for improving in- dustrial efficiency that involves interconnecting all departments, from the entry of the raw materials to pallet shipment. But we are only at the beginning, Prime still has much to offer,” she said.
Buy something that will last forever
All industrial products can benefit from using data smartly. Take producing valves as an example. Like the sculptors in ancient Rome who chiseled away at a block of marble to reveal a beautiful statue within, Bardiani Valvole SpA ( Fornovo di Taro, Italy, www.bardiani.
com/en/) manufactures single body valves from a solid bar of stain- less steel. Like Dana, Bardiani is a member of FEDERTEC.
The result in Bardiani’s case is a single body valve devoid of welds and capable of lasting many decades. That quality comes at a cost. “Making a valve from a solid block of stainless steel requires that we scrap 70% of the material because it’s machined away,” said Andrea Genitrini, general manager of Bardiani Valves Canada Ltd. (Toronto, Canada, www.bardiani.com/en/). “But it’s still the best way. I have customers [who purchased Bardiani valves] in the ‘80s and ‘90s and they are still working.”
Not only durable, they are smart. The sensor-equipped valves communicate their status—open or closed, flow rate, temperature—to a plant’s programmable logic controller. This helps maintain smooth operations and assists with diagnostics should a problem occur.
The family-owned company was established in 1981 by patriarch Emilio Bardiani. It is now operated by his sons, Emanuela Bardiani, who is currently the managing director, and Luca Bardiani, the com- pany’s chairman and CEO. Their ISO 9001 quality assured factory in Fornovo di Taro, Italy, is at an important crossroads in the Food Valley and Bardiani has historically made valves for some of the most impor- tant food manufacturing companies in the area.
The company manufactures about 60,000 valves yearly. The sin- gle seat and Mixproof B925 valves are the biggest sellers thanks to their reliability and certified hygiene. For markets where particularly strict standards have to be met, Bardiani designs and produces cus- tom valves, such as the B915PMO, a valve which received Pasteur- ized Milk Ordinance (PMO) certification in the United States for dairy sector applications.
Like the PMO certification, Bardiani is accustomed to providing parts that comply with various certifications because its valves are used in the highly regulated food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries in Europe, Canada, the United States, Mexico and South America.
In 2014, company leadership decided to establish a presence in To- ronto for the convenience of its North American market, and sent Geni- trini to open the location and run it as general manager. Genitrini and his employees work out of a 3,500 square feet (325 square meters) building and ship Bardiani valves primarily within Ontario and Quebec while also providing sales, installation, post-sale assistance and parts services.
The company’s Easy-Maintenance Design philosophy minimizes contamination points for food and pharmaceutical applications, mak- ing it easy for customers to satisfy Canadian Food Inspection Agency and/or U.S. Food and Drug Administration preventive safety control requirements, while minimizing process downtime. Through close consultancy with Bardiani’s engineers, a tailor-made design solution is curated for each customer and the lifetime cost of ownership is reduced by up to 70%. With more data available from manufacturing processes, they need data strategies that not only enhance productiv- ity, but are easy to use for machining operators, engineers, and com- pany management alike. Fortunately, Italian technology providers are answering this need with customizable turn-key solutions.
18 Volume XIII | www.machinesitalia.org