Francesco Gagliardi and Roberto Rapposelli have a very close relationship with their almost vintage brown bicycle. The two Würth employees are working on the premises of yacht manufacturer Ferretti in the Italian town of Forli and they are practically a part of the team.
The two logistics guys use their old bicycle, which is marked with a Würth logo, to travel the company: They are called when one of the many ORSY® racks or ORSY®mat vending machines in one of the production halls is running out of materials. Then, they jump on their bike and start reordering products with their scanner. The order is then transmitted from Ferretti’s internal Würth shop where thousands of different items are stored that Ferretti needs for its daily yacht-building operations: screws and bolts, nuts, tools, PPE, care products, abrasives, silicones and adhesives. A yacht consists of many different parts, from electrical to sanitary installations, from A/C units and engines to a wide range of luxury interiors. Most of these are fastened, sealed and finished using Würth products. So what happens if something is needed urgently? Then either Roberto or Francesco will deliver it quickly on their bicycle—and with a friendly smile.
To be able to quickly travel between the ORSY racks, ORSYmat vending machines and production sites, the Würth employees on the Ferretti Campus got themselves a bicycle.
Yacht building is the perfect combination of design and technology
“Yacht building is the combination of two important aspects,” says Michelangelo Casadei, Technical Director at Ferretti Group and responsible for all engineering services. “One the one hand, there is the design, the style, that is the emotional side,” he explains. “On the other hand, there is the functional technology, the output, the performance.” According to Casadei, the true engineering feat in yacht building is finding the right balance between performance, weight, space, comfort and safety, or in other words “creating a mansion on the ocean that is seaworthy.” More than 20 highly specialized experts in his department are working on finding exactly this balance with their various software programs, boasting almost unequaled world-class expertise.
In traditional yacht building, a huge so-called plug made from wood is constructed first, which is then used to produce the fiberglass hull. When building smaller yachts, the hull can be milled with a machine.
Sanding and polishing are essential activities in yacht building. Many applications are needed before a surface has the required perfectly smooth finish. The products of the Würth Perfection Line create a perfect shine.
Würth is the perfect partner for process optimization
What Casadei, a tall engineer with a keen eye for details, appreciates about Würth apart from the great product and service quality is the strong focus on the customer. Through its partnership with Würth, Ferretti succeeded in revolutionizing its own yacht-building process: with lean-management processes, accelerated flows of goods and by standardizing many work steps. That Würth’s highly sophisticated logistics systems are complemented by a vintage courier bike is just a creative expression of Würth’s process optimization efforts for Casadei. He has a cordial relationship with the two Würth employees Francesco and Roberto. After all, even with all the perfection and excellence Ferretti is striving for, there is something that is essential in every customer relationship with Würth: a personal quality.
