My 20 Years at Max Speed

Among the founders of AIdA, later to become AIdAM (the Italian Association of Mechatronic Automation), and protagonist of its growth over the last 20 years, Director Massimo Vacchini has a deep knowledge of a sector featured by quite a significant technological evolution, anticipating in some ways Industry 4.0. With him, we retraced a beautiful history of associationism, made up of memories, evaluations and projects for the next few years.

by Fabrizio Dalle Nogare

What were the reasons that brought to the foundation of AIdAM, 20 years ago?
The founder of PubliTec, engineer Massaro, had the great intuition to create a magazine on assembly machines, a new sector at the time. With him and with the help of another person with a great vision, Elio Vegetti, then owner of a screwing systems company, we decided to create an association that could represent the sector. The third element was the AmmTech fair, which we promoted first in Vicenza and then in Milan. All initiatives that had, at that time, great success.

How has the way of managing the association changed over time?
In these 20 years the sector has changed a lot, first of all. It should be remembered that the sector itself is not easy to define numerically as it does not yet have an ATECO reference code. Compared to the beginning, manufacturers of assembly machines have more defined identity and specialization, in terms of both end sectors and size of the machines manufactured. Italy is definitely the second-best country in Europe after Germany in the assembly field.
The newly-founded companies today are featured by quite a high technological level, even though they remain mostly small or medium ones.

How did you get to involve also manufacturers and distributors of components?
From the very beginning, we had the idea of gathering together machine builders as well as manufacturers and distributors of components. In 2004, also machine vision companies joined the association and created a dedicated group, the IMVG.
Over time, we have also included university research centres, with which we have carried out some important projects. Now we will add the Educational division, aimed at AIdAM companies that have a division devoted to the field of education. The sector is growing and is no longer just about business, but also about sharing knowledge.

In 2011, the association changed its name, from AIdA to AIdAM. What was the meaning of such a change, also in terms of purpose and targets?
When AIdA was founded, the main purpose was to communicate the existence of the assembly sector. The change of name became necessary when the identification of the sector was no longer closely related to assembly, but rather to mechatronics. This last word, so fashionable today, encompasses three subjects – mechanics, electronics and information technology – that assembly machine manufacturers had been handling since before. The previous name, in short, had become constraining.

Presidents pass, directors stay, they say. What are today the main responsibilities of those who are called to manage not only the strategic part, but also the ordinary activities of an association?
I must say that 20 years have passed, but I have hardly noticed. This means that the sector has made me so passionate that it has not tired me. On the contrary, it is still stimulating me and pushes me to devote all the time necessary to the association so that it can grow, before transferring my knowledge to someone who has, possibly, my same passion.
Associations are a pool of great knowledge. On the other hand, they require a lot of commitment. The director is the interface between the member companies, the association’s management and the outside world: he has to make proposals, listen to the members – for better or for worse – and support them if they need advice.

What are the main regrets or reasons for disappointment, looking back at these 20 years as AIdAM director?
Not being able to accomplish a project of aggregation between member companies that we worked on in 2007, which could lead to the creation of a subject made of 10 companies with different peculiarities, relying on 350 employees, 8 offices in Italy, 2 abroad and a turnover of about 90 million euro. The second regret was the failure of the AmmTech exhibition, which would have had the potential to become an actual reference in Italy.
Then there is the issue of the low participation of some members. What I say to those who join AIdAM is that participating in the association life should be a priority. Networking opportunities are very important to promote business, meet potential customers or suppliers, as well as talk with competitors.
Then there are the commissions, which are used to address issues affecting the industry as a whole, not the single members. I’m thinking of the civil liability project, for instance. The Executive Board meetings are also crucial events: in recent years, proposals such as the scheduled maintenance contract, the test document have been discussed, or possible foreign markets to deal with have been indicated.

On the other hand, what are the reasons for the greatest satisfaction?
The growth of the sector, to which the people who work and have worked for AIdAM have certainly contributed. Especially SMEs need services that we can provide: from marketing to legal support, up to internationalization, technical support and courses for entrepreneurs. In the future, I believe that the association should push, for example, on financial services.

The synergy with ANIE Automazione allowed for the creation of the Smart Vision Forum. Is the search for collaborations with other institutions a strategy to be followed also in the future?
The importance of aggregations is also true for associations, not only for companies. We realized that our shared interests with ANIE in the field of industrial vision could allow us to work with the aim of supporting the companies.
As a matter of fact, the idea of networking with other associations has always been part of our DNA. In the coming years, I believe that such an issue will be increasingly important, as the possibility of finding synergies and optimizing resources, including economic ones, is a great advantage above all for member companies.