Do you know what “Mes/Mom” means, an acronym for “Manufacturing Execution System/Manufacturing Operation Management”? We are talking about dynamic software, which allows to monitor, track, analyze, document and control any production process of goods, passing from raw materials to the final product. Tools that even in a traditional world like the woodworking and wood-based materials industry are imposing new standards, because they allow – among other things – to have a real avalanche of data thanks to which it becomes easier to make the decisions necessary to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of a company.
A road that can be traveled step by step and that was really very interesting to see implemented in a factory in Croatia – more precisely in Mursko Središće, a few kilometers from the Slovenian border – where Sobočan, a company specializing in the production of furniture for shops and contract, is based.
A great company that has shown us how today businesses are no longer looking for just a certain machine or a particular line, but they decide to adopt a completely different approach from the past, made up of timing, cost cycle, programming, exact knowledge of every small event that happens in the company.
A turning point that Sobočan has chosen to make with Scm, one of the most important groups in the world in the proposal of systems for secondary woodworking.
Srdjan Ivkovic, Marko Trupković and Lorenzo Trolese
Scm reached out to the Croatian company for the first time in 2019, thanks also to the collaboration of the dealer operating in that area, Primostroj: there was a need for a new finishing plant, and the Superfici solutions opened the first door. It was not long before the customer, not exactly satisfied with his “made in Germany” solutions, decided to give space to Scm by purchasing other new technologies.
“We made ourselves available to the company – Lorenzo Trolese, regional manager of Scm in the Balkans, and Srdjan Ivkovic, owner of Primostroj, Scm’s historic dealer in Croatia, told us – and, working closely with the technicians and engineers in Rimini, we analyzed the needs and defined a customized and highly innovative project, which today allows us to work in an absolutely flexible way, “batch one”, maintaining a high production capacity”. Trolese added: “First-level analysis and process skills are needed to identify and structure a software architecture such as to process a high-tech project. In the case of Sobočan, these skills were decisive together with a strong synergy between Scm’s market experience and engineering skills“.
The project includes a “flexstore hp” 12 by 48 meter automated warehouse for the incoming panels that feeds two “morbidelli x400” 5-axis CNC machining centers for nesting and a “gabbiani g2” panel saw, the former to produce doors and visible parts, the “noble” elements, the latter for the cabinets; all elements that in a very short time are moved on to the next phases.
“We immediately understood that collaborating with Sobočan would mean writing a completely new, engaging story,” said Lorenzo Trolese, who is also country manager of the newly formed Scm Adria, which you can read about on page 56. “We supported the customer in the creation of a very modern factory, with an excellent production capacity, entirely built with Scm machines, technologies and software. A challenge, as we have mentioned, completely different, born from the desire to have a “Mes/Mom” platform that would allow us to organize the work of all the offices and functions involved in the production process, from the project to the finished product, meeting the agreed cycle time. An example of how furniture production can and must be in the future, a real revolution that, once fully operational, will lead to an up to 30 percent improvement of production efficiency“.
“I think I can say that we were the first in the Balkans to understand how times have changed and how the world of furniture must also equip itself with modern organizational and production systems, essential to keep up with a demand that is fortunately growing strongly and constantly. Systems that have allowed Sobočan to become one of the reference companies in the world of contract furniture and the world of distribution”, Marko Trupković, technical director of the Croatian company, told us.
“We are a young company, founded in 2000 with only five employees. The strategy was clear from the beginning: to have full control of the entire production process, working in-house all those materials that contribute to the creation of furniture for a store. We therefore equipped ourselves to process wood and metal, but also acrylic materials or Plexiglass, also taking care of assembling the electrical parts and managing about twenty installers. All this in order to be flexible and fast, an autonomy that has allowed us to conquer positions compared to our competitors.
Croatia’s entry into Europe in 2014 then allowed us to make a huge leap forward, allowing us to work in a large market without any limit to our exports, having above all gained the ability to offer a very high quality, immediately appreciated in many countries, to the point of reaching an export share that in the best years is up to 80 percent“.
A very rapid development. “We have grown from sixty employees in 2013 to about 200 today, with a turnover of up to 25 million euros,” added the general manager, Nikola Sobočan. A growth that we had to learn to manage, which led us to consider every aspect of our work in an “engineering” way and which had a significant impact on our subsequent technological and organizational choices“.
Who are your customers?
“Restaurants, fuel stations, shops and so much more. Our most important customer is a very famous German sports brand that has five thousand stores all over the world, a customer that has taken us to work in the Philippines, Australia, Africa… Retail is undoubtedly one of our strengths and represents about 50 percent of our work. 20 percent comes from furnishings and supplies for fuel stations, another very interesting market. And then there is the contract sector: every year we produce about a thousand hotel rooms, plus a share of customers and orders that are decidedly smaller but equally valuable in order to better manage the timing of our production.
As you can see, we are talking about very different customers, who know very well what they want, thanks also to the support of architects who define the projects that it will then be up to us to realize, always with a high level of customization, a value that our customers appreciate very much.
Keep in mind that in our “archive” we have at least 150 thousand different pieces: if we had not chosen to adopt the most modern criteria of organization today, I don’t think we would be at this level“.
SCM’S FIRST SUBSIDIARY IN THE BALKANS
Going and seeing the future-proof plants adopted by Sobočan gave us the opportunity for a stopover in Slovenia – in Trzin, near Ljubljana – to visit the headquarters of Scm Adria, a brand new subsidiary of the group that will not only oversee the markets of Slovenia and Serbia, but will be an important point of reference for customers and distributors operating in Croatia, Bosnia and the rest of the Balkans.
A decisive turning point in an area where Scm has been present for over thirty years, whose recent evolution has convinced them of the need to be present more directly, so as to be able to seize the thousands of opportunities that are emerging in these countries.
At the helm of the new branch is Lorenzo Trolese, Regional manager of Balkans and Country manager of SCM Adria. “We have made a strong choice, necessary – he told us –to be able to understand the customer needs even better and propose solutions that are really in step with the important phase of development that the world of wood and its derivatives is experiencing in this part of Europe.
Being credible, reliable partners means working hard to be able to respond quickly, competently and completely to the questions of entrepreneurs who are the expression of a great vocation in woodworking, which has always been “at home” in the Balkans, whether we are talking about panel processing or solid wood transformation.
In the Technology Center of the new headquarters, which we inaugurated on 26 September, we have in fact chosen to display a wide selection of our technologies, from those that we have been successfully offering in the Balkans for decades to others with which we want to testify to the skills we have gained on different fronts, starting with housing, a segment in strong growth in these countries“.
“According to our estimates, the woodworking technology market in this area is worth about 70 million euros. A market that, let’s not forget, includes Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia… Countries in full development where opportunities arise that we can now seize organically.
Scm Adria will be essential to make us take a powerful leap forward: we are providing customers with 1,600 square meters in which we have set up two “Technology Centers” dedicated to carpentry and industry, with over thirty machines on display, a “Digital Corner” where they can find out what Scm’s offer includes today in terms of digitalization and servitization, including the new “Control Room” thanks to which we are always connected to our customers’ machines to continue a common path even after the sale, remaining at their side in terms of predictive maintenance and becoming real partners in a rapidly evolving world. There is also a “Training Room” that will be the heart of our reskilling and training activities available to our customers and their technicians.
But the real “added value” is the team of people who work in the new branch, about twenty highly specialized technicians and sales engineers who will allow us to better “tell” everything we can offer in every segment of woodworking and its derivatives, a team that is certainly destined to grow in the coming months“.
In short, a new era is opening for Scm in the Balkans…
“Certainly. We are working very well in these countries, with an important and constant growth of 30 percent per year and the best performances were recorded in Slovenia and Serbia, the countries directly served by the branch.
You see, Scm Adria really has a lot to offer in an area where there is no shortage of challenges. I am thinking of the need to deal with a workforce that has very different costs than in the past and that is increasingly difficult to find: it is no coincidence that the decision to dedicate two days of the “Grand Opening” of the new branch to schools, universities, training centers. Then there is a deep and widespread process of renewal underway, entrepreneurs who have understood how challenges are played out today and in the future in new areas, where digitization, logistics, integrated systems, automation are the new watchwords… Without forgetting that in these parts there are important plants of the giants of large-scale furniture distribution with “significant” investment plans on which we will be able to have our say“.
