First came Phoenix Contact (www.phoenixcontact.com), which asked the technical press to visit its new logistic center in Cesano Maderno, near Milan, fully operative since January 2012. “This important investment confirms the company’s interest for the Italian market and its will to be closer to Italian partners and end users,” said Francesco Lanzani, general director of Phoenix Contact Italia.
“After almost a year of hard work, from the first project to the actual removal of the previous warehouse into this new building, we finally succeeded in inaugurating this logistic center, also improving the flexibility and our staff’s job skills. All this aims to offer a better service to our customers, always on time and with marginal errors. The project was also in line with our new company view: to be a complete customer-oriented solution supplier, whose products are developed to satisfy our customers’ needs.”
The new logistic center near Milan will be able to satisfy Phoenix Contact’s business growth for the next 10 years. “We also intend to increase the product range we can supply directly to the Italian market,” said Gabriele Donati, who responsible for the whole project and the company logistics. “The new warehouse is 2,950 sq m by 7.5 m high and only half used at the moment. We used only our products to build the entire plant.” Expect new devices in our product range soon, he added.
“Also, the project was totally internally made; the whole capacity of the warehouse will be 2,700 lines/day with a 98 percent efficiency on the first date confirmed to the customer; the whole process is paperless, with tags tracing the products. In the future, sensors, motors, conveyor belts, IT cameras and the like can be added without adding other cables, so that the entire system can be extended easily and fast,” said Donati.
>> Read how the Italian machine market performed in 2011 and what to expect moving forward in 2012 and beyond. Visit bit.ly/awslant021
Mitsubishi Electric Factory Automation (www.mitsubishi-automation.com) presented its new software solution this spring as well. “The higher level of competitiveness in the world, as well as the increasing costs of raw materials and energy, are challenges which companies can face only reducing waste and supply chain costs,” said Haji Sugiyama, the Mitsubishi manager responsible for South Europe, Africa and Middle East.
To meet these needs, Mitsubishi developed a new complete solution: MAPS—Mitsubishi Adroit Process Suite. The Japanese company is convinced that the future will be played out on software. “Integrating data coming from different business units and translating that into useful information for the entire company is a key factor for the success in business, as it allows managers to make the right decision in the right moment, to cut waste and have a better control on the production and supply chain,” said Antonio Gallo Toro, product manager for Factory Automation at Mitsubishi Electric.
MAPS is a lifecycle software tool that helps companies better integrate programmable logic controller (PLC) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) tools, and it offers customers the ability to handle the normal extensions and maintenance of any automation solution. It also ensures a standardized and structured design (according to ISA88 and ISA95 international standards) and helps to ensure that project documentation is kept up to date
>> Ilaria De Poli, [email protected], is an editor at “Fiera Milano Editore,” a magazine covering automation and manufacturing in Italy.
