NTS S.p.A., leading company in mold building and molding of thermosetting and thermoplastic materials, has recently joined the ITS JobsAcademy foundation, as participating member.
“This decision is based on a sound conviction: the person is at the center of the Company together with his precious personal and professional growth.
A partnership, the one between JAC and NTS, that has to make our school-business relationship more and more fruitful in order to generate future and technology in our territory”.
With this perspective, NTS considers our “Technology of composite materials” path as an opportunity of collaboration and development, sharing projects, in the interest of the students and companies of this branch.
With its membership, NTS confirmed its will to contribute to the pursuit of the JAC Foundations’s goals, in particular by carrying out – in collaboration with the companies of this sector – a series of initiatives whose aim is promoting and enhancing the education paths proposed by JobsAcademy, to optimize their theoretical and practical teaching methods to allow the “super-technicians of JAC” to accelerate their entry into the labour market.
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/
Jenny Janet Vera Hidalgo is a young Ecuadorian woman, working in NTS for more than ten years.
She is a specialized worker in the molding dept., who recently cooperated to the writing of some internal and very useful instructions to her operation and to the one of her colleagues.
Here is her story.
INTERVIEW WITH JENNY JANET VERA HIDALGO
How did you live your condition of foreigner when you arrived to Italy?
I came to Italy in 1999 and in the 2003 I moved to Bergamo for personal matters, I immediately liked this city for its tranquility and beauty.
I felt welcomed and worked in different local companies, among which Nolan and Necta.
After some time, one day, I left my curriculum in NTS and my professional life changed since then. I remember that the first job interview had been very positive, my fluent Italian had been particularly appreciated.
What did you find in NTS?
A company that made me grow a lot, on professional and human level as well.
I learnt to sharpen my perceptiveness and my critical thinking, I improved my organization skills. Thanks to the team work, I understood that having a common goal is not enough, it is necessary to share a method to reach a real harmony.
What’s the air you breath in NTS like?
I’d say that there is a very cooperative atmosphere: none of us feels a number even though the company is big.
I have a memory about this aspect. After working for a few time in the finishing department,
I had been given a new role in the moulding department. My responsibilities grew, in particular I had to take care of the functioning and maintenance of some machineries.
I was afraid of this step but I was followed by Giuliano Bresciani, the moulding technologist that became my reference point. A very scrupulous professional who supported me with professionality and patience.
What did Giuliano tell you to reassure you?
Once, at the end of the day, he saw I was kind of discouraged and told me: “Jenny, don’t worry, your work must become a part of you. Each day you will gain new information and, without even realizing it, you will feel as sure as you have never felt before. Let time run its course”.
These words remained in my heart, really.
Is there any other episode of your work you would like to tell about?
Last year I saw a colleague of mine having some difficulties. After a week training, he was not able to use a machinery properly, he did not remember the procedure. I thought it would have been useful to him to have some written instructions at hand, so that he could consult them in case of need. As I went home, I started to write them into a document.
I do not know very well the Italian grammar, therefore my children helped me as they are born here and know the language very well: I like to involve them in my work and they know NTS even thanks to what I tell them about the company.
When I completed the document, I shared it with NTS Direction who really appreciated my contribution, and made it official together with all the Quality documents. There is no need to say that I felt very gratified.
What led you to undertake this action?
The sense of belonging and the love for my job.
We spend most of our time at work, I think that loving it is necessary to feel satisfied and pleased.
It is a teaching I am trying to transmit everyday even to my children.
Is there anything you like to do in your free time?
Spending my time with my friends: I have many in NTS as well.
I also like to help less fortunate people.
I cooperate with the organization Naga Milano, specialized in welcoming immigrates in Italy. We try to give them basic assistance, even speaking the same language often helps them to feel reassured. I believe that everyone of us has the duty to give help to those who need it.
Do you have a long-cherished dream?
When I arrived to Italy I did not continue my studies in Economics and Business, I had to work. Maybe it’s gone for the best like this, I did not feel talented at scientific studies. I don’t know when but I would like to study psychology to better understand other people and always feel useful.
Davide Licari is the head of the Moulds’ building workshop in NTS.
He coordinates a team of twenty people, he loves sport and educational training.
He is been working in NTS since January 1989 and he lived the switch from artisan to industrial business.
We interviewed him to get to know his professional history.
INTERVIEW WITH DAVIDE LICARI
What does your job consist of?
I manage the complete mould productive process in NTS.
All our moulds are generally conceived by our design dept. and then put into production.
There are many activities which are nowadays handled by anthropomorphic robots but the human position remains anyway central: in the setting and monitoring of the machinery, and in the finishing phase of the mould as well.
This synergy between Machinery and Man is a very important aspect in my department.
If on one side I have to monitor the perfect functioning of the equipment, on the other side I have to make sure that all human resources work at their maximum potential.
Technology and Man must coexist in an harmonic way: my task is to make it happen. It is naturally perceivable, that the digital evolution has changed the way to work in the last years and, further to this, the Company has invested in my training as well.
How?
With NTS I attended technical classes, but especially, I have attended classes to improve my personal abilities, for example the one of managing a working team.
I am really grateful for the educational path I undertook.
I learned a lot from our coach Paolo Manocchi: he taught me a lot but especially to listen carefully to my interlocutor since often his questions already include the answers he is searching for.
Our work often make some unknown aspect of our personality emerge. Do you agree?
During the years I realized that I get a lot of satisfaction in seeing motivation in those who surround me and, quite the opposite, I get very annoyed when somebody is unenthusiastic.
There are some young guys wanting to work here but they back out after a few days.
I find it curious that, even thanks to some TV program, it is considered noble to oil one’s hands in the kitchen but not very elegant to soil them with cooling lubricant used in a workshop.
There is a common opinion, that I don’t share, which divides series A and series B manual labors.
I strongly affirm that doing a manual job involves concentration and mind commitment together with the ability of using one’s hand with professionality. It means being able to create something, it is really priceless feeling.
Can parents help their children to fulfil themselves?
We have to stop being hyper-protective towards our children. Sometimes parents accompany their 18 years old children to our company and recommend not to make them tire too much. We must understand that loving our children means to help them to find their own way, to encourage them to dare, experiment, and do what they do with commitment and heart.
Making experience and being humble are necessary to grow up: there are no shortcuts.
What do you like in NTS?
I have been working in this Company for more than thirty years and I can say it is a company that believes in values such as transparency, coherence, sharing, responsibility and flexibility. The switch from artisan to industrial reality has been gradual: we all felt we are a part of the growth of this Company.
Moreover the fundamental values remained the same: even if workers and collaborators have exponentially grown, none of us has ever felt like a number.
NTS is able to keep up with the times without degenerating: I think this is its greater strength.
What do you think about the new company image and the social turning point?
I believe that company communication is coherent with our way to be.
Technology, environment and human relationship are always at the center: simple values that everyone of us tries to transmit to customers, suppliers and collaborators.
I appreciate the choice of being present in social medias: it is a way to open to the world, to dialogue and converse even beyond physical confines. We are like this: we love confrontation.
What are your passions?
I like running. I also have a directive role in the sportive society Atletica Stezzano.
Many people think it is an individual sport but they are wrong: the most beautiful aspect of running is training with mates and preparing for a competitive event keeping united.
I believe it is a wonderful metaphor of life: every one of us runs with his own legs but breath and heart are the result of an inner strength that you find only when you share your path with valuable people.
After a long career in electronics, Giorgio Testa decided to seize a new challenge and, in 2016, joined Spin-ON, a particularly innovative Enterprise network.
We interviewed him to get to know his professional history.
INTERVIEW WITH GIORGIO TESTA
How did you get to know NTS?
I have been Marco Manzoni’s tutor when he was going to graduate in Engineering at Bergamo University with professor Lucio Cassia.
We kept in touch during the following years, exchanging ideas, opinions and aims.
We greeted each other via Skype one day and decided to have a coffee together. I’d say it has been a providential coffee.
Why? What happened then?
Talking to him I realized that our professional experiences were really aligned: we both thought that the industrial system needed synergic visions and activities.
Marco told me about his wish: he longed to become a solution provider to his customers, able to design and realize integrated solutions joining plastic and electronical skills. He thought that the integrated approach was winning and forward-looking.
I totally agreed with his thought and found in his ideas and in his words the same conclusions I reached after studying the trend of the market, that was starting to ask – with more and more insistency – the gathering and integration of different skills.
The necessity to raise the level of the service to offer to the customers was clearly emerging.
After that, it’s been a short step: in 2016 my adventure with Spin-ON began.
What is it about?
Founded in 2013, Spin-ON is an enterprise network which joins the skills of the plastic world of NTS to the ones of FAE Technology, a leading company in design and construction of electronic systems.
The common goal is to develop a new integrated business through the synergy of the respective skills and to grant complete and technological services and products to each one’s reference market.
What do customers that meet Spin-ON’s opportunity appreciate the most?
First of all customers appreciate having only one interlocutor that understand immediately their requirement: this converts into a more efficient dialogue and a more performing result. The customer that chooses us knows that he can reach an excellent solution from all points of view.
We are not a standard supplier, we are a business partner that supports the customer from the beginning to the end of the life cycle of his products.
What happens during the first meeting with your customer?
I listen to him carefully to understand what he requires.
After analyzing his needs, I consult my team. After a few days I meet my customer and bring a prototype with me: my promptness is generally highly appreciated.
How do you manage to be so fast?
We treat the problem as an opportunity.
We tried to shorten the processes thanks to this new strategic approach, the experience and the know-how gained during the last years inside innovative platforms defined “Product Acceletator” both in FAE and NTS.
It deals with some basic models of electronic platforms that cover about the 95% of the enquiries we receive.
They allow us to meet the customer and collect with him the preliminary idea of the product, with the ability to realize it quickly, always giving the highest care to his specific requirements.
Having an active model to start from has a lot of advantages: we are far more quicker in realizing a complete product, more competitive as it concerns prices and it allow us to offer a taylor made solution to our customer.
The customer that relies upon us can also count on a shorter time to market compared to his competitors, which means, to him, an exclusive advantage with a high added value.
What if the customer’s idea does not fit one of your standard models?
The challenge leads our different Business Units to meet and give life to a great and fruitful intellectual ping-pong. Spin-ON is where the world of plastics by NTS and the world of electronics by FAE are accustomed to dialog with each other, in a fluid and dynamic way with the aim to create solutions aligned to our customers’ requests.
It is this attitude indeed to make us fast and effective, even when we have to design something staring from a blank page.
Is there a project of whom you are particularly proud?
There are many of them.
One in particular deals with an innovative system for domestic control, a kind of virtual butler
(Jarvis: http://www.hellojarvis.it).
The company IOOOTA from Bologna consulted Spin-ON as they needed to make a product evolution: we quickly activated and, in less than four months, we reached the goal.
The skills of NTS led this project to be shown at SuperDesign Show di Milano (FuoriSalone) and at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
I think this is a beautiful example of a Made in Italy technology.
You transmit your enthusiasm while speaking. Is there a secret channel you activate when you need energy?
I am infinitely grateful to my job because, every day, I have the chance to be involved into new challenges and projects. This intellectual mobility generates excitement, positivity and vitality. Moreover I can also exchange views with valuable colleagues: we setup a network of innovative ideas that empower each other and we surprise to realize them. We have fun working together.
I believe our minds are like drawers where everyone of us puts his/her ideas and know-how. Let’s always keep them open so that everyone will feel free to take what they need and make a good use of it.
Sharing and professional contamination are the key words of the future. I am sure about it.
To get to know closely the Research and Development Department, essential generator of innovation, we interviewed Eng. Fabio Cortinovis, R&D Manager.
INTERVIEW WITH FABIO CORTINOVIS
What do you in NTS?
My function can basically be divided into two specific branches: development and improvement of our production and research of innovative solutions for our Customers.
In this contest there are activities such as the study of new materials, productive process optimization and virtual simulation of mould flows.
Can you tell us something about your beginning in NTS?
I had just graduated, I had been collaborating for two years in the Mechanics and Mechatronics Dept. of Bergamo University, and I was very attracted by the Plastics branch as I wanted to deepen my knowledge in this field.
When I joined the Company, I found extremely helpful people who welcomed me with great enthusiasm and revealed all the tricks of the trade sharing with me their wealth of experiences with surprising gratuitousness.
How important is it for a young graduate to feel welcomed?
It is fundamental. I had the fortune to receive precious teachings by all my colleagues, enriching my personal and professional experience, humus for my growth.
I pour my growth every day in NTS, sharing it with my colleagues.
I must admit that human warmth and constant confrontation are typical of NTS.
Meetings among different professional figures are periodically planned in our company, to grant constant energy flow, involvement and creative thinking.
What impassions you most about your job?
It’s exciting how the human mind can generate virtuous processes, almost unconsciously. In my experience, searching for solutions of optimization for our customers, helps me to find innovative ideas to apply in NTS and vice-versa. Going beyond what we have always done, to find something new, is the most exciting challenge I can take part at.
Can you tell us about a project of which you became particularly fond of?
We had an automated island in our production dept. that did not work properly in comparison to what it could potentially do; this was not depending on us but was due to an unforeseen event in our customer’s project, for which the island had been conceived, that unfortunately did not reach the awaited quantities.
Every time I saw this machinery working on-off, in spite of its great potential, I felt uncomfortable. It looked a terrible waste to me. Then a new challenge: why couldn’t we study the automation issues and reconfigure that automation island for a new project?
And so we did, reconverting the island for another productive process.
We gained specific knowledges in the automation branch and this attitude revealed its success soon.
How?
Two years ago we obtained an important project in the automotive branch, a sector where automation is fundamental. The specific know-how we developped in our company, allowed us to deal the project with competence and awareness. The Customer was so satisfied that he entrusted us with new projects, which are more and more ambitious.
Does automation scare workers?
We have very competent and collaborative people here in NTS, they know how to put themselves into play.
I mention the case of my colleague Davide: he was a shift supervisor in the moulding department till a few years ago, now, after he kept and extended his skills in the moulding department, he became my main collaborator in the study of automation islands and robots programming. In all this change, he saw his job ennobled and he is happy with it.
Of course this transformation process must be bound to training, flexibility and a great commitment.
But one thing is sure: being open-minded is always rewarded.
What do you think is the role of technology nowadays?
Technology doesn’t have to be a theoretical exercise, it must bring real efficiency to be turned into business wellbeing.
Technology has a fundamental role in our lives: it must be an incentive to always improve, doing things with higher quality and in shorter times.
DNV-GL guarantees NTS’ Quality System
In 2018 the international DNV-GL institution declared NTS S.p.A.’s Quality Management System certified according to the ISO 9001:2015 standard.
This goal, which is the result of the concrete attention to real Quality, marks a very important growth for NTS that, during this process, has focused also on strategical aspects of fundamental importance such as the Company risk management.
The Company risk management.
The Company risk management is a topic of great importance for the solid continuity of a Company.
It allows the analysis of critical issues that may interfere in a business contest, defining in advance strategies and specific actions to face them promptly and effectively.
The main advantage for companies that adopted a company risk management model, is the clear business vision in anticipating threats and turning them into opportunities to generate business continuity, in short – and long term.
The importance of the certification institution.
DNV-GL is one of the main certification institutions in the world.
Its authority in certifying the quality of organizations, products, structures and supply chains is known in all commodities sectors.
For more information, click here
“Transmitting the social importance of being Enterprise has become a priority of all leader companies: even because of this, communicating one’s values and sustainability becomes a challenge as much necessary as exiting.” Marco Manzoni – Executive Vice-president NTS S.p.A.
INTERVIEW WITH MARCO MANZONI
What’s the role of Enterprise communication, in your opinion?
I believe that companies must nowadays get connected with people, not only through their products and services, but also showing their social and value-related worth.
In plain words: it is important to build a Corporate culture.
The world of social medias, for instance, gives a great chance: describe oneself directly, quickly, widely and without many formalisms.
Does communication lead to concrete results?
Bringing people closer to companies – for example workers or the community where the Company itself is situated – can really be masterful. Today it’s strictly important to attract new talents, create partnership among different companies, maybe complementary with each other, to give live to very innovative projects.
Plasticmind is the leitmotiv of your 2018 communication. How important is it for an entrepreneur to have a plastic mind?
The entrepreneur is a true bearer of mind plasticity, together with his managers: even when he aims to well-defined business objectives, he often has to go through tough situations to achieve them.
As a consequence, he has to face problems with a new attitude: flexibility, positivity and initiative are very useful features, together with the plural strength of his team.
Furthermore: the entrepreneur must be very careful and open to take his cues and gather ideas from the world, and to quickly acknowledge inputs able to generate added value.
How can the Man’s plastic mindset be harmonized with the Machine’s linear mindset?
Automation is a subject that needs a sincere and serene discussion on our behalf.
Of course some human activities will be executed by machineries in the future years, but we must recognize that we are talking about replaceable, repetitive and standard jobs.
There’s nothing to fear for a worker that keeps specializing himself and investing in his own training.
In this big data age, it is normal to exploit the machine’s ability to file and store datas, even to improve oneself thanks to self-learning cognitive methods. But this is not enough for all necessary functions and positions inside a company.
What do you do in NTS to increase the plastic mindset of your staff?
We yearly interview our staff NTS to evaluate the skills of everybody according to their role in the company.
If a member of our staff shows a gap about a fundamental subject (as it concerns ability and responsibility of his position), we evaluate to bridge it with a specific training course or we consider requalifying the person with another position, that may better fit with his/her features. Being plastic also means to have the courage and the initiative to adapt the organogram to the current work’s scenario.
We really trust in this system for two reasons: it stimulates our staff to improve, training to keep “open” and flexible, and it assures to our company the possibility to grow showing new skills to the market.
Our staff’s knowledge is strictly proved by the value of our products and services.
We have talked about plastic mind. What about the body?
Body and mind are strictly connected, as the Latins thought.
We believe that well-being at work is a very important matter: for this reason we took part in the WHP Bergamo program, which promotes health at work together with the support of ATS Bergamo and Confindustria.
We have planned many activities that extend from smart communications to keep fit, to sport training groups in different disciplines.
The new site of NTS S.p.A.
New image, new logo, new content firmly anchored to entrepreneurial identity and its roots from which everything was born. A daily vision geared to “make a difference” for the growth of the service offered in the mold construction and molding of thermoplastic and thermosetting materials.
Contact us for further details.
