Paradox lies in a number: 15. Even though we work in less than 2 square meters, every day we risk going back and forth across the company for 15 kilometers. It’s the distance we risk covering step by step to recover materials, tools, components or ask for instructions and information. Often waiting for replies from somebody else. It’s such a waste of time. Another wasted resource. And company wastes, often without realizing it, are hidden behind each functionality of productive processes. This also has an aggravating aspect: man’s work is not put at the center.
It’s been sufficient to assemble a wooden bicycle according to two different methods of organization and working areas – traditional and innovative – to measure the difference: productivity increased up to 30%, reduced final set-up time up to the 45%, number of assembled items tripled in the same time. It’s a recovered competitiveness. «Time is nowadays a small resource, it is necessary to give more attention to the working area, its organization and people. I believe it is a real opportunity even to let talents in the company emerge».
There is above all him, Marco Manzoni, owner of NTS in Lallio, 250 employees, family company in the strict sense and leader in design and construction of moulds and moulding of items in plastic materials, sitting right in the same room on the day of the official inauguration of the Academy of the company. It’s the effort of NTS to make internal training even more a constant, able to comply with the necessity of the company and of people. «These are investments to raise the professionalism of everyone and their well-being at work. We have to keep in mind – explains Manzoni – that there is always a better way to do things in comparison to what has been done before: it is the sense of who is committed to make industrial production still sustainable». It is also the day on which NTS decided, during his 60th year of activity, to make a change and adopt its own a tailor-made organizational model. On the other hand, the advice of the specialized company EY. We begin with an exhortation: «Using our hands we are able to understand the perspective of lean manufacturing at is best» announces Massimo Trebeschi, EY operation manager.
These are the two magic words of the day: lean and manufacturing.
The method is plain, Japanese origins and acronyms, Toyota as absolute reference of lean company. Even because it taught the logic of this method: it is not adopted only to reduce waste, overproduction, down-time, process losses, stocks. «Standardizing a working process – explained Manzoni – means to set a fundamental priority: certifying the safety standard».
Extract of an article taken from Skille – Eco di Bergamo – Wednesday 15 January 2020
Click here to read the complete article
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The business of generating work today may seem almost impossible.
But thanks to the determination of many entrepreneurs, in Bergamo you can breathe an air of positivity and dynamism.
“A tu per tu” was held at the Dalmine Oratory, an evening of value with the participation of Marco Manzoni, Don Cristiano Re, Giovanna Ricuperati, Marco Lupi, Giacomo Perletti, Tommaso Minola.
The story of the entrepreneurs involved was particularly suggestive as each of them recalled how often the family dimension is an immense source of propulsion, which then allows you to bring creativity and innovation to the company.
Giovanna Ricuperati, entrepreneur in the world of communication, said: “My most typical expression is that of wonder. I am passionate about it, I get carried away by enthusiasm and I am often induced to look for new paths. But all this would not be possible if I were not supported by the network of relationships that I have built up over the years. It is personal relationships that make us solid and that allow us to evolve. ”
Giacomo Perletti, a young entrepreneur in the agricultural world, said: “It was not obvious that one of my age would fall in love with a rural nucleus of the 16th century, Contrada Bricconi in Valle Seriana. During the last years of Agraria I started to imagine a recovery project and, slowly, I developed the decision to live there. But without the collaboration of my wife I wouldn’t have made this choice. A beautiful but demanding choice, all the more because now it also involves a new life: my son ”.
Our mother tongue is Italian and our collaborators, driven by the desire to share all the advantages of NTS, have produced different video contents
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Giuliano Bresciani, technologist for thermoset moulding tells us about his forty years in NTS.
Interview to Giuliano Bresciani.
40 years in NTS. Is there a memory you always keep with you?
An unforgettable memory is about the one-day trial period. At those time, NTS did not exist, it was Nuova Termostampi. When I arrived to the company and entered the moulding department, there were only two working presses, in addition to the smiling Rosanna Manzoni and Marinella Manzoni. This is a memory I really have close to my heart because it shows how passion is important to make a great business reality.
In NTS the attachment of Manzoni family has always been a founding part of our growth: the company has deeply changed, it has grown a lot but the support of a united and concrete family has always been present.
Which values, in your opinion, allowed NTS to evolve in these 40 years?
Passion, will to evolve, desire not to remain static over time. I think that also training plays an important role in our daily business, same thing for professional contamination.
NTS is a fluid place, where knowledge and enthusiasm spread from person to person.
What’s your role in the Company?
Now I mainly deal with technology, development and training related to thermoset moulding, but it took a long professional career to get here. I started as moulding operator till I became technologist and coordinate a working team.
I’d say I ‘ve evolved together with NTS.
What have you studied?
Before getting to know NTS, I did some technical studies in the field of electronics but they were not enough for my role. Therefore, always working, I integrated my studies and deepened mechanical drawing. You have to test yourself and experiment, it’s the only way to grow.
What’s necessary to grow?
Curiosity and passion because without this last feature you can’t learn anything. Passion for your job helps to live better, to wake up in the morning with motivation and solid goals.
What do you advice to young people?
Not to be afraid of having a go. When you have to make a hard choice you always have to evaluate all possible risks but you also have to trust a lot in the future.
One more thing: I believe that young workers have to learn not to hide in individualism, but they have to find their strength right in the union among workmates.
When you are supported by a team, you can find unexpected solutions, even in hard times. Together we are stong, alone we are weak.
Is it possible to discuss different points of views, is there dialogue in NTS?
Dialogue is the most constructive moment to us. We meet monthly so that everyone of us is aware of all company issues, but also of all successes we achieve. Alignement is a fundamental value to make progress together.
What do you like to do in your freetime?
I spend my time with my family and I like dancing, it’s my great passion. I love ballroom and latin dance; in particular I appreciate the cheerful atmosphere with my wife and my friends. Music gives energy and allows to relieve pressure cumulated during the week.
Have you been married for a longer time with your wife or with NTS?
With NTS, five years more!
Yesterday Matteo Longhi, member of the internal WHP group of NTS, received the prize of accredited factory by WHP.
This prize makes us pride beacause of the values that this program believe’s in.
What is it about?
We spend about 1700 hours per year at work.
A really important time in which we have to keep and improve our professionalism together with our health. Feeling fine at work generates a positive effect that affects not only the organization but also our everyday life.
We strongly believe that the workplace is a constant discussion and improvement habitat and, right because of this, we joined with enthusiasm the WHP program (www.whpbergamo.it).
We involved our whole team through a promoting group of people and, a few months after adhering to the WHP program, we have already implemented important virtuous actions.
Any example of good practice?
Twice a week we make baskets of fresh fruits available to our team for a healthy snack.
The vending machines nearby our relax area are equipped with healthy foods (such as dried fruit or simple carbohydrates) and low-cal refreshing drinks.
To cap it all, we decided to discourage smoke, isolating the smoking area in a small portion near the parking.
Into the bargain, we are thinking of new activities.
If you follow us on our socials, you’ll be update in real time.
WHP: what is it about?
WHP program has been conceived and experimented in Bergamo by the Health Protection Agency together with Confindustria, with the endorsement of different institutional and scientific partners.
In 2012 it has been spread to all the territory of Lombardy Region.
The workplaces joining the WHP undertake a path that foresees the realization of good and effective actions to promote health and safety.
WHP companies promote physical activity, offer opportunities to quit smoking, support a healthy diet, implement activities to improve the well-being at work.
Further information about WHP available at: http://www.whpbergamo.it/
Also this year NTS joined with great enthusiasm the PMI DAY – INDUSTRIAMOCI (Small Medium-sized Enterprise DAY– Entrepreneurship project for students) that is an initiative promoted by Confindustria, since 2010, which sees its associated companies open their doors to the students of secondary and upper secondary Italian schools. By now at its ninth edition, this project involves in Bergamo more than 6.000 students.
The first recipients of this initiative are students – to whom it is intended to transmit business culture – their families and teachers, which play a decisive role in orienting their students, but also administrators of local institutions, media and all those who interact with the activities of the companies.
For this occasion NTS hosted 45 students of the eighth grades of Lallio and Treviolo. After a brief welcome, they visited our production departments to experience firsthand the values of work and business culture. Afterwards there has been a moment of exchange and comparison between students and NST staff.
The aim of the initiative was to show the strength and the innovation of the small and medium-sized enterprises of the manufacturing sector in Bergamo and how they are vital for the socio-economic endurance of our territory, giving a fundamental contribution to the economic and social growth of our Country through the creation of wealth and occupation.
These events allow to publicly show the true potential of the enterprise in transmitting its social role, also helping younger people to orient themselves in their next formative choices and gain a higher awareness of their upcoming future.
The great involvement and the interest shown by the students, made this SME Day very meaningful for all participants.
A friend and a teacher, plastic is the great protagonist of NTS’ history. An enterprise that, over 60 years, has always adapted to new systems – including managerial systems – by widening its gaze to undertake an innovative and sustainable modus operandi. Between generational moves forward, technological advances and constant market challenges, today the company, headed by Marinella Manzoni, president and CEO, daughter of the founder Alessandro Manzoni, has become a reference player in Italy in the field of moulding plastics, thermoplastics and thermosetting as well as building moulds for third parties. It was precisely the mould construction shop that was the lively heart of the company, founded in 1959 as the individual enterprise Manzoni Alessandro.
It was an artisan company that produced moulds for forming plastics with the first machines installed under the stairway of his
house.
Sacrifice, commitment and work were the key words of the economic boom of the late Fifties.
Thanks to the founder’s entrepreneurial aptitude, the first important orders soon arrived, especially from companies in the electromechanical sector. In the Seventies the company began compression moulding of thermosetting materials, starting with the prevalent use of polyester masses and prepregs (BMC and SMC), which in those years began to be offered on the market. The use of these new materials immediately proved ideal for applications in the electricity sector, which has become the main outlet for the company’s products. After the early death of Alessandro Manzoni in 1976 at the age of 50, he was replaced by his son Gianrenzo, a mechanical expert. Gianrenzo had already been working in the company but, from one day to the next he found himself moved from the workshop to the desk.
«Sometimes we can make a crisis into a virtue. This approach has forged all our generational advances», recalls Marco
The Nts directors.
Click here to read the full article from “Anniversari – Eco di Bergamo”
Eric Pallante, Thermoplastic Moulding Dept. Manager, tells us about 20 years in NTS and his life rich in meaningful events. The childhood in France, passion for sport and music, constancy in dedicating to his job with a method aimed to continuous improvement.
INTERVIEW TO ERIC PALLANTE
When and how did you join NTS?
I joined NTS in 2001 but I have been working in the branch of plastic material molding for forty years. I have always liked this field and it has never been a burden to me to wake up early in the morning or come back home late in the evening. Often, especially in the past, I used to work on Saturdays and Sundays as well, since I have always been motivated by passion towards my job.
What do you take care of today?
I am the technical and organisational manager of the thermoplastic molding department.
I coordinate about 15 people: I always try to establish a relationship based on dialogue and respect with my team. I believe that, in particular, it is correct to work together to create a functional and efficient working method, where everyone has to feel protagonist for a continuous improvement. It is necessary to celebrate working successes and improve one’s critical areas: this is the only way to empower the individual and the team as well.
They say you are a perfectionist. Do you confirm it?
I believe it is fundamental to have a precise working methodology. When you are logical, organized and prepared, results appear in no time. Someone thinks I am too meticulous and I admit that the years have reinforced my perfectionist nature but making an excellent work is, most of all, a personal challenge to me. Every day I ask myself: “Will I be able tomorrow to do better than I did today?”
In a few years I will retire and I decided to include my experience in a “manual” about molding (in particular about setups), that I’ll leave to NTS as concrete sign of professional continuity.
I wish to avoid difficulties to who will take my place, because I believe that the company’s benefit must be put before everything.
What do you like in NTS?
The collaborative atmosphere, the freedom to do one’s best, the pleasure to work in a family where also those belonging to the top management “dirty their hands” with the people in the production department. Many of us really care about the company well-being and take care of it.
How is the company climate in NTS?
In these years I have established solid professional relationship, in addition to sincere friendship.
Even though I am 56 years old, I have still have fun like a little boy when I play football with my friends-colleagues and we end up, at the end of the evening, to eat a pizza together. Simple things are those that make us feel satisfied.
Do you love football?
A lot. I did everything: the player in all roles, the referee, the coach till the I became president of Society Calcetto Canonica d’Adda. This sport is also linked to a great regret: when I was 14 I used to play in D series as goalkeeper, I was also quite good at it. But I needed to work and nobody has ever pushed me to follow this passion that could have also become a job.
Do you like to travel in your free time?
I keep France in my heart.
My mother comes from lake Endine and my father has Abruzzese origins, they got married and left Italy in the post-war period, when France required labour force from Italy.
I was born in a beautiful place, Mont Saint Martin, same as my brother Marc.
I was six years old when my parents decided to come back to Italy, a choice that I did not accept very well: I loved France and love it still. As soon as I can, I go to visit it, I have also kept the dual nationality, as proof of my loyalty.
What did that experience teach you?
In France I used to live in a ghetto with people from Senegal, Tunisia, Italy. I grew up among the others and I have always integrated myself. To tell the truth, I have never felt differences. The bad thing has been when I came back to Italy and experienced racism on my skin: I was discriminated for my accent, for my clothes, even for my name that was considered too exotic. Since then, I have decided that I would have never been racist and that I would have taught my children that diversity is always an enrichment.
Is there another passion, apart from football?
Music. I manage a 80s music band and play some instruments by ear. Nobody has ever taught me, yet I get by quite good. Music is a universal language and it transmits energy and positivity, that’s why I like it so much.
NTS S.p.A. confirms its commitment to consolidate the relationship between school and company by participating to the JobFestival, an event organized by Confindustria Bergamo in collaboration with schools, companies and institutions to promote the meeting between students and local companies.
An opportunity to meet young talents to introduce our industrial reality by providing them with a focused and complete overview of the work market, professional opportunities, internships and school/work alternation.
Here are the steps you shouldn’t miss:
FIRST STEP: May 27th – ITIS Pietro Paleocapa – Bergamo;
SECOND STEP: June 5th – IISS Ettore Majorana – Seriate;
THIRD STEPE: June 6th – IIS Guglielmo Marconi – Dalmine.
Last Saturday we have been pleased to celebrate 60 years of history.
A unique and touching event where, in presence of the whole NTS team, different voices alternated to narrate our company, a reality boasting a solid past and, at the same time, an exciting future.
“I am very excited today, this is an important goal we achieved thanks to the determination and the desire to succeed, despite everything. We have to give NTS a piece of eternity and this will be possible only in as much as we are able to make the company more and more solid, autonomous and performing” –began a moved Marinella Manzoni, NTS President.
Fabio Daminelli, NTS Operations Manager, also intervened during the morning and recalled many fundamental milestones of the company, such as the opening of the plant in Romania. “I monthly meet our Romanian colleagues and always feel impressed by the enrichment of our meetings. Distance does not matter if we are supported by the same values and the same vision”.
Also Prof. Lucio Cassia, full professor and president of the Research Center for Young and Family – University of Bergamo, reiterated how familiar companies are still the cornerstone of Italian economy: “Companies like NTS remind us of the importance of the family and of the key values that animate every big company: resilience and determination”.
At the end of the morning, the gloss by Marco Manzoni, NTS executive Vice-President: “Today we have recalled our past, rich in endless teachings. I believe that, in particular, it is important to enhance an essential aspect: we are strong and able to face personal and professional hard times. All this owing to two great features that are innate in our DNA: flexibility – typical of the plastic material we work with – and the deep union of purposes that has always been feeding our team”.
During the morning we shew this celebrative video: