The consortium gathers a well balanced mix of partners in terms of background, expertise and International dimension. In fact, the partners from 4 different European countries (2 Member States, 1 Associate country and 1 Candidate country represent the academic and research field (Universities of Udine, University of Maribor, Sintef) and both the industrial (Merloni and Derbi) and the consulting domain (Innova).
The consortium has been structured to provide the project with a three-axis perspective of the problem and its solutions, seeking the complementarity and transnationality of partners:
The Department of Electrical, Mechanical and Managerial Engineering (DIEGM) was established by the Rector of the University of Udine in 1994. The aim of the Department is to promote and coordinate the research and teaching activities in the fields of Electrical, Electronics, Management, Mechanical and Control Engineering. Concerning the teaching activities, the lecturers of the Department are in charge of about 40 courses for the "Laurea" and the "Diploma" degrees, in the electronics, mechanic and managerial engineering fields.
The research group currently is carrying out several R&D projects. The most recent ones currently in progress, at European level, are:
- V-CHAIN -Virtual Enterprise for Supply Chain Management- (GROWTH Programme): the aim of the project is to develop a framework to build federated supply chains based on a virtual enterprise approach. Two pilots will be carried out within the project: Pilot 1 (Ford´s supply chain, including: Ford, Exel Logistics, Dynamit Nobel, Johnson Controls, Grupo Francisco Segura); Pilot 2 (Aprilia´s supply chain). The project is carried out by a consortium that involves 11 partners (also Innova participates to the project) which belong to 5 European countries (Spain, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, France).
project timeframe = 30 months, budget = 4.7MEuros.
- ASIA V-CHAIN -Advanced Strategies and tools for Virtual Supply Chain Management in Asian environment- (Asia IT&C Programme): the general aim of the project is to facilitate the access of Asian SMEs to EU advanced and innovative organisational methodologies and ICT solutions designed for a more efficient management of industrial processes (negotiation, planning, scheduling, delivery etc.) and flows (materials, information, etc.). The other partners are Polytechnic of Valencia (Spain) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (China).
- ISS FOR CHINA -International Sourcing Strategies for China-(Asia IT&C Programme): the project aims at developing an International Sourcing model and provide the supporting IT tools in order to improve business relationships between Chinese and European SMEs. The other partners are the University of Magdeburg (Germany) and the National Centre for Science and Technology Evaluation (Beijing - China).
Currently the department employs more than 30 professors and researchers, 28 contract researchers, Ph.D. students and full time collaborators, supported by a technical/administrative staff composed by six people. Specifically, the personnel who will be more involved in the project is composed as follows:
- Alberto Felice De Toni, Full Professor
- Guido Nassimbeni, Associate Professor
- Stefano Tonchia, Associate Professor
- Pietro Romano, Associate Professor
- Alessandro Bonanni, European Project Researcher
- Alessandro Ganzit, European Project Researcher
- Andrea Fornasier, European Project Researcher
- Luca Comello, European Project Researcher
- Carla Fioritto, European Project Assistant
The coordinator of the project activities will be prof. Alberto Felice De Toni who teaches in the courses of "Production Organisation and Logistic Systems", "Production Management" and "Enterprise Information Systems" about the University of Udine. He is also President of Managerial Engineering Course; Substitute Dean of Faculty of Engineering; Rector's delegate for Technology Transfer; Executive Vice President of Area Science Park - Trieste, the largest multisectoral European scientific park; Councillor of Administration of International Research Centre for Mountain, promoted by the National Research Institute for Mountain of the Ministry of Education, University and Research. He has also published several papers and articles in international scientific journals on the following fields: manufacturing strategy, operations management, supply chain management, performance measurement systems, new product development, innovation management.
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Innova S.p.A. (www.innova-eu.net) is a private company specialised in Technology Transfer services. Established in 1993 it has now branches in Italy (Rome, Padua and Udine), Europe (Portugal, Belgium, Luxemburg, Hungary and France) and the USA (San Jose, Silicon Valley - California). It is made up of a pool of 75 professional consultants, qualified researchers and university professors.
Innova assists Industrial and Research organisations in the implementation of their strategies for the exploitation of technologies and the valorisation of R&D results. So far, hundreds international technology transfer actions have been carried out by Innova, whose experience can be attributed to its strong involvement in R&D and marketing activities realised with highly qualified European Companies (Aventis, Natuzzi Industries, IFREMER, Telecom Italia, Praxair) and Universities (Fraunhofer, JRC, CSM, TNO, ENEA, Alenia, Pôle Leonardo Da Vinci, University of Cambridge). Currently more than 20 European projects are ongoing.
Innova supplies consultancy services to industries and leading research centres and offers its assistance to the European Commission for the development and exploitation of innovative solutions for the improvement of processes, products and management and organisation structures. The easy access to world-class R&D institutions, the international partnership and the constant monitoring of the most advanced technology solutions are the visible indication of Innova commitment to technology transfer and exploitation, its main priority and mission.
Up to now Innova has implemented, since March 1997, several Stimulation Actions (CE.ME.LE, PRO.SY.TT, TRA.C.KER, CRUISING, GO4IT!, EC.INSIGNIA, INTENSE, WIAM, SCAN-RTD, BIO.SAFE). This activity is performed in collaboration with several Federations and Associations of Small and Medium size Enterprises (FEDERAPI Veneto, API Modena, PROMOROMA), European Chambers of Commerce, Science Parks (Area Science Park, Patras Science Park), National institutions for the promotion of Innovation (ENEA) and European organisations devoted to the stimulation of technology enhancement and innovation (Innovation Relay Centre Network, National Contact Points, Innovation Agencies).
As concerns Innova, the activities will be coordinated by Dr. Aleardo Furlani, Innova's managing director, and Dr. Antonio Zangrilli, head of Innovation Unit. Dr. Furlani has extended experience with more than 12 years of managerial work in several companies in Italy and abroad. Dr. Furlani is fluent in five languages and he has very extended experience in the evaluation and management of research project both National and International and in support to the European Commission. Dr Furlani has extended training experience in Technological Transfer Dissemination Activities through tutoring in seminars from 1995. Dr. Antonio Zangrilli, as a senior consultant, has worked in several European and national R&D projects (Contender, V-Chain, Ecosell - GROWTH, Dots - ITS, etc.) and he has a wide experience in technology transfer and valorisation processes. His background and expertise secure his effectiveness and the successful completion of his mission.
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The Laboratory for Production and Operations Management (LAPOM) is involved in teaching and research at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. This faculty is a part of the University of Maribor that today it is the second biggest education and research centre in Slovenia with total of 20.000 students, and more then hundred teaching and research staff. The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering is an established institution of higher education and research with a total of 1.242 students and 204 academic staff.
LAPOM was founded at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering as early as 1978. Today LAPOM is focusing on research areas, which capture some of the main challenges confronting manufacturing organisations. The central themes of research at the LAPOM concerns the relationship between the overall competitive position of manufacturing organisations and the development of their organisational capabilities, management of supply networks and industrial clusters, incorporation of knowledge management perspective into manufacturing and performance management. These ask from researchers to adopt a holistic perspective on manufacturing. Additionally to its basic teaching and research missions LAPOM strives to establish strong ties with manufacturing companies. It has been involved in a number of industrial projects mainly supported by Slovenian government. These projects focus on increasing the competitive capabilities of Slovenian manufacturing companies.
Eight full-time researchers and academics work for LAPOM. They provide a critical mass for the group to engage with the challenging projects, which aim to produce a new knowledge in the context of manufacturing.
In particular, the research group that will work on the project will be composed as follows:
- Professor Andrej Polajnar is full professor of operations and productions management at University of Maribor where he has been on the faculty for more than 25 years. He has written several textbooks about production management in Slovenian language. He has managed numerous consulting projects with industry.
- Professor Krsto Pandža is assistant at University of Maribor. He holds a PhD in operations strategy from University of Maribor. He has gained his business experience in management position with manufacturing company. His research interests include operations strategy and its interaction with strategic management. He is a member of EurOMA.
- Professor Marjan Leber is assistant professor at University of Maribor. His research interests include continuous improvement, innovation management and quality management.
- Professor Borut Buchmeister is assistant professor at University of Maribor. He teaches operations and production management at Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. His research interests include production planning and control.
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The SINTEF Group is the largest independent research organisation in Scandinavia. SINTEF offers to its clients intelligent, profitable solutions based on research and development in technology, the natural sciences, medicine and the social sciences. At the turn of the year we had 1770 employees, who generated a turnover of EUR 200 millions in 2002. Contracts for industry and the private sector account for more than 90% of our income, while seven percent is in the form of basic grants from the Research Council of Norway. SINTEF Solutions AS is a SINTEF owned company with the goal of integrating the whole of the SINTEF Group's knowhow and to act as a channel towards the market.The research institute Industrial Management (one of the 8 research institutes Sintef consists of) performs research and development that will help to improve competitiveness and productivity in industry and public sector and is also active in European research activities. SINTEF Industrial management is divided into five different departments with a total headcount of more than 150.
Department of Economics and Logistics (DEL) has a scientific staff of 17 (5 with a PhD). DEL has four main areas of competence: Operations research, Regional Economics, Business Economics and Logistics. The department does R&D and carries out studies in close co-operation with internationally recognised scientific groups in operations research and logistics research. The department has special experience in developing decision support systems for the industry and the public sector. For the last 10 years they have been responsible for the development the regional economic planning tool called PANDA, which are use by all counties in Norway and The Ministry of Environment. For the last three years, together with Statistics of Sweden and Inregia, they have been responsible for the development of a similar system, called RAPS, in Sweden.
SINTEF has gained experience in numerous EC projects during the last years. SINTEF Industrial Management has recently participated in among others REMAIN, NOEMIE, EU Innovation, INSTANCE and Multi-Stimulation actions for SMEs - Innovation Program. DEL in particular has recently participated in the EC projects REMAFEX, SMArTMAN, EuROPE TRIS, EuROPE TRIO, EuROPE TRIP and STEMM. In addition SINTEF Industrial Management participates in numerous international research networks and programmes.
- MSc. Sebastiano Lombardo is advisor at SINTEF Technology Management, and holds a Master of Science Degree in Civil Engineering (1998), from The University of Trondheim, Norway (NTNU), with a Master thesis in "Creativity applied at highway planning". Lombardo works with SINTEF since 2001 and his main fields of work are business development and organisational development. Lombardo has experiences from oil industry, ICT industri and works on several European projects
- MSc. Eirik Borgen holds a Master of Science degree in computer science from the University of Trondheim, Norway (NTNU). His special fields are system work, production management and modelling/simulation. Borgen has been employed as a scientist at SINTEF Production Engineering from 1981. His research work is presented through papers at conferences, articles in international journals and in a number of SINTEF reports.
- Researcher Lars Harald Vik has been working at Economics and Logistics since August 1998. Main fields are econometrics and industrial economics. Vik works, at Economics and Logistics, with problems related to regional economics, industrial economics, finance, empirical analysis and forecasting. Before going up to Oxford he had a degree (cand. mag) from NTNU (Norway, Trondheim) which included philosophy, sociology and mathematics.
- MSc. Lars Skjelstad is a researcher at SINTEF Technology Management, and holds a Master of Science Degree in Industrial Engineering (1991) from the University of Trondheim, Norway (NTNU). Main fields of work have been logistics, production planning and control, and development and design of production solutions. Skjelstad has experience from the food-industry and the ICT-business. He has been a guest lecturer at NTNU and at HIST.
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Merloni Elettrodomestici, born in 1975 (previously the Company was known as Industrie Merloni, founded in 1930 by Aristide Merloni) is among the top three manufacturers in Europe segment and the youngest company among leaders at a world-wide level. Thanks to the image of the three European brands, Ariston, Indesit and Scholtès, to the dual strength of service-innovation, the Company has always been highly regarded by the market, growing by twenty times over the last twenty years. The Company's industrial policy has always been based on a sustainable development idea, appropriately summarized by the founder's father, Aristide Merloni: "There is no value in economic success in each industrial initiative unless there is also a commitment to social progress".
In the '90s, a multi-brand strategy is developed throughout Europe. By now, Merloni Elettrodomestici is one of the main European producers and produces millions of household appliances in different European countries. The economic growth of Eastern Europe involves the company with competition on new markets, in which it quickly becomes a leader. At the end of 1999, the first in the world, Merloni Elettrodomestici launches digital products on the market capable of connecting to Internet: this demonstrates the strong company's orientation towards the research of innovative and advanced solutions.
Since January 2005 the name has been changed into Indesit Company.
INDESIT has 17 productive plants all around Europe (Italy, France, Portugal, Turkey, Poland, Russia and Great Britain) and 21 subsidiaries throughout the world: thus, even if the project activities will be mainly carried out about the Italian central seat in Fabriano, a wide international diffusion of the results may be assured thanks to this industrial network configuration.
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DERBI (Nacional Motor S.A.U) is a brand with a history of more than 80 years. DERBI is the first Spanish manufacturer in mopeds and light motorcycles as well as to be defined as the sport trademark in Piaggio Group, with a participation in our market of over 25%. DERBI employs more than 350 people. DERBI belongs to the Industrial area of Catalonia District (it has several supply relationships with the local Companies) and is tightly connected with the local public institutions.
The incorporation of DERBI into the Piaggio Group has meant a consolidation of the DERBI activities in export and Spanish markets as well as an improvement in the industrial activities in our plant in Martorelles. This fact, together with the reinforcement of their dealers and suppliers networks, has set up a sharp inflexion point in Derbi's contribution within the group we belong.
Moreover, their products are being sold in the five continents: 70% of our production is for the exportation, reinforcing the presence of DERBI in all markets, especially in the European one, where they are leaders concerning light mopeds with gear box.
The responsible of the activities for DERBI will be Mr. Luciano Brotto who is the head of New Product Development & Purchasing Unit. Mr. Brotto has wide expertise in business processes and dynamics and has a deep knowledge on the motorcycle production sector thanks to his past work experiences with other industrial groups (e.g.: Aprilia S.p.A.).
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