Always Be an Idea Ahead

Starting 70 years ago from the classic garage, and from “a bicycle for deliveries”, Dalmar’s history today speaks of a structured company with consolidated know-how, working in the distribution of a broad range of products for industry. On the occasion of such a significant anniversary we went to visit the company at its headquarters in Segrate and with Managing Director Roberto Scuratti we talked about strategy, innovation, logistics, service and much more.

by Fabrizio Dalle Nogare

Sometimes the most long-lasting and relevant entrepreneurial stories are generated by intuition, almost by chance. The classic snowflake, in short, can generate an avalanche. This is exactly how it was, exactly 70 years ago, for Dalmar, founded by Professor Giuseppe Genovesi, who sensed the potential of the then revolutionary hydraulic transmissions and decided to bet on it. Starting – as the company website says today – “with a small office in Milan, two employees and a bicycle for deliveries” to dell industrial pipes and hydraulic fittings.
To understand what Dalmar has become, 70 years later, it’s enough to read the box at page 86. We, on the other hand, went to see, in Segrate, the person who was called to manage the company in 2011, Managing Director Roberto Scuratti.
“With the aim of providing the Italian market with technologically advanced products – he tells us – Dalmar has tried since its foundation to forge long-lasting partnerships with primary manufacturers all over the world. It is no coincidence that some of our main partnerships have lasted for over 60 years, going well beyond both generations and managers”.
What has been done, over time, to adapt both the company structure and the strategy to the need to manage such a broad and diversified product portfolio?
The five BUs into which Dalmar is now divided require very different business models. In order to cope with this complexity and heterogeneity, we have adopted an organisational model capable of making the verticalization of the BUs coexist (with dedicated resources for specific projects, continuous staff training, the ability to be a continuous laboratory of ideas and therefore to face every new opportunity) with the standardisation and automation of operational processes aimed at achieving the highest efficiency.
The fact, then, of being a family business with a very present core in the management and the ability – as we like to say – to always have an idea more than we can achieve, has given us a long-term perspective that, I believe, has been the real strength of this company so far. In addition, to be even more dynamic and flexible, we have been able to attract a quite young management staff, focused strongly on training, not only technical but also in terms of soft skills.

What role is a distributor supposed to play today? And what is the scope of technological innovation for a company like yours?
Technological innovation, for us, mainly concerns the order management process, logistics and warehouse management. It is no coincidence that we are working to further improve and refine our service, giving greater added value to our action and always trying to listen to the needs of customers or even anticipate them.
To a company like Dalmar, simply selling a product cannot be enough. Let me quote an example about that.
We are able to manage the so-called “kanban with refilling” in the production line at our customers’ premises. In detail, we analyse their consumption and the logistic flows of the components, we determine through some algorithms all the management parameters (quantity per package, number of packages, refilling frequency, security stock, etc.) and then we also physically take care of the delivery/storage directly in line at their production sites. All this is carried out through a software, shared with the customer, that allows for a continuous visibility of the situation and even of the value of the material in transit and in stock.

In short, not just offering the component but having a consulting approach and support for the implementation of more complex systems, then…
That’s right. I quote another example, referred to our BU Tools. In addition to selling the screwing system – either pneumatic, electric or electronic -, we can now provide an integrated system, then a solution that includes, for example, the entire workbench, in which there are, in addition to tools, devices dedicated to improving quality, ergonomics and efficiency of the production process: support arms (equipped with position sensors that ensure the correct sequence of the various operations), programming units and data management systems that interface to the customer’s PLC, any socket tray as well as poka yoke sensors.

Speaking of screwing systems, how important are they in your company’s portfolio and activity? And how have the needs of integrators and users of these products changed over time?
The BU Tools and Torque is constantly evolving in terms of technology, and is able to provide industrial tightening systems with a high level of innovation: regulatory constraints in terms of safety and ergonomics are becoming increasingly strict and companies that care indeed about these issues have more options when choosing a system.
The one of Tools is the BU in which the many years of experience and professionalism of the technical staff, on the one hand, and the continuous training, on the other, allow us to face the competition with some important companies, often more structured than us.

Talking about screwdrivers, big changes are now underway: I am thinking of the ever-increasing digitalization of production processes, but also of the use of electronically driven systems. How does Dalmar act in this regard?
We aim to make people perceive the added value that electronic solutions can, in some given applications, provide compared to pneumatic or electric solutions, which in any case are often still suitable and successful. As far as we are concerned, the sales trend for electronic systems is rising sharply, while it remains substantially stable for pneumatic screwdrivers. However, we have a different commercial approach for products that require a better advice by our staff, using demo kits so that customers may also try them.
Having a complete and reliable range of screwdrivers means that we can address different types of customers, ranging from assembly line manufacturers to OEMs in multiple sectors and operating with different production logics: industrial production in large and small series, assembly on islands, plant engineering and infrastructure.

Back to logistics and warehouse management, what are the next steps planned to further optimize the flow and push on innovation?
We are implementing an e-commerce system aimed at selected, profiled customers who will be able to order products online based on their availability in our warehouse. We have launched some projects, in collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano, with the aim of revising the current logic of scheduling and assigning materials through the adoption of more advanced systems.
Customers will not see all this directly but, we hope, will benefit from the effects that these innovations can generate. Using a metaphor, we are working on the engine that will allow our car to achieve even higher performance.