Giovanni Corti, president of Omas
Several issues were treated in the course of this interview by Giovanni Corti, president of Omas. In the context of a reality with various facets like the current one, it has appeared a company outline where, among other elements, the technological aspect particularly stands out, in terms of internal and product dynamics
Mr Corti, how do you judge the present health state of the field of wire working machines and what evolutions do you expect for next year?
Also this field is obviously affected by the global situation in course. Concerning Italy, then, apart from few exceptional cases, it is almost stagnant, while concerning Europe, and in more general terms foreign markets, there are interesting prospects to be seized.
What do you consider the right operational strategy today to face the challenges of an undoubtedly complex market like recent years’?
For small companies, like Omas and the majority of the Italian enterprises that operate in the wire working industry, it is really very difficult to try to understand, and if possible to anticipate, its dynamics, since the instruments at entrepreneurs’ disposal are few and limited indeed.
What is your opinion about the internationalization theme, today crucial for the companies in our Country, and not only?
The average of the “export share” of our company in the last three years exceeded 80%, therefore the matter is not so much to have an opinion about that but rather to understand that without internationalization today no company can think of surviving and developing.
What are your daily targets and what the long-term projects?
Everyday goals and long-term projects are the same, that’s to say: creating the preliminary conditions for a business growth allowing our company to look at the future with serenity and prospects, aware of its skills granting the supply of plants characterized by high technological level to customers.
BMX 305-25T machine equipped with press with 250 kN power, with 300 mm machining range
What importance do you recognize to the Research&Development activity, according to a vision of competitiveness in national and international ambit? How does your company operate in this ambit?
The answer is obvious: the Research & Development activity is fundamental, or better it is of vital importance! In compliance with that vision, our technicians and collaborators are called to develop the technological heritage of the company. Unfortunately, however, the “Italy system” does not award, but on the contrary it hinders, the companies that want to invest in this strategic sector and the logic consequence is the serious damage not so much and not only for companies themselves but especially for future generations.
What role do motivation, competence and updating of the personnel play in your course of development and continuity on the market?
Omas relies on a technical staff constantly updated and provided with the most recent and powerful computer systems that, together with a business philosophy oriented to absolute quality, allows us to work every day at the technological development of ours plants, and, essentially, to verticalize the technical proposals in order to satisfy always at best customers’ demands, proposing highly performing solutions. In any case, apart from all that, the above mentioned remarks are valid also for this answer.
In your opinion, what role do energy saving and efficiency play in the context of today’s industrial dynamics?
Efficiency and saving are factors to be fully applied in current industrial dynamics, and not only in the energy ambit. Concerning this, I would like to underline how much, also in this field, the Italian industry and citizens themselves are notably damaged, since they pay energy on average from two to four times the world mean!
Business nets as instrument of greater force and competitiveness on today’s market: what do you think about that?
I believe that they are theoretically a possible solution but they are actually of difficult implementation. This for three main reasons: the narrow-minded mentality of entrepreneurs, times, since in my opinion the net model should have been pursued twenty years ago, and finally the lack of an industrial policy on a national scale really oriented to that system.
Finally, how do you evaluate the current situation of access to credit of Italian enterprises?
I would not like to seem unkind, but I would prefer not answering this question!
PM1110-60T plant equipped with double-connecting rod press with 600 kN power and 1200 mm machining range (with doors)
Partnerships with customers and all-round quality
With what strategic approach and with what operational policy does a company like Omas find the answers to the needs expressed by customers and by the market context in which it operates? With a corporate philosophy oriented to the highest quality, in terms of technology, implementation, environmental impact and safety. But even more important is the investment in the relationships established with customers, «trying to make them understand – explains Giovanni Corti – that they are not simply dealing with a reliable supplier but especially with a partner with which to evaluate, to analyse and to manufacture the most suitable solutions for their requirements ». This “way of thinking” has allowed Omas to create really fruitful relationships: not by chance, in fact, the company more and more frequently manufactures plants in co-design with customers, in that way creating a series of technical and commercial synergies that finally allow fidelizing them over the time.
The right solution to everybody
Omas offers a notably broad and diversified production to the market. Each proposal, in fact, can draw from a machine fleet subdivided into:
– 6 different series and 23 models of multi-slides machines, which from 1976 to 2012 were manufactured and installed in about 1150 units, equipped and verticalized with more than 6000 different equipment;
– 7 series and 20 models of NC electronic machines, with a machining range that goes from 0.50 to 18.00 mm for the wire and from 3.00 x 0.3 mm to 100.00 x 8.00 mm for the strip;
– 2 series and 12 models of machines series welding, purposely conceived to make welded components, which allow covering a range of workable sections from 0.50 mm2 up to 200.00 mm2.
All this is completed by the wide range of coilers and special plants.
The company can therefore propose the right solution to each customer, meeting specific use requirements and addressing different product sectors of destination, such as automotive, clothing, agriculture, welded components, furniture, building, electrical/electronic industry, small metal parts, household appliances, big distribution and filtering.
