Within the lean manufacturing concept of automation of the operation has become the buzz word. For the garment manufacturers the only way to survive is to achieve high quality standards in short delivery time. Hence, they started demanding machines which could reduce production time and those which could do multiple operations at a fixed cost. Responding to the demand, technology providers, Vibemac of Italy, pioneered itself on developing new sewing technology in the production of jeans and casual trousers. With special and consistent efforts and inputs from Founder-member Carlo Guerreschi, his tech-team and Alberto Guerreschi, CEO, New Hi-tech Solutions, are continuously developed and launched in the world market.
The development process has further accelerated with the management changes in the company, when Guerreschi family bought out Morandin family shares. The old team of technology innovators and the new commercial team, together have taken the challenge to greater heights by offerring innovation and improved technology while bringing improved services closer to the needle point in order to maintain and expand the existing markets in addition to opening new commercial territories. Present in 55 countries, represented through 28 agents, Vibemac is poised to grow and achieve excellence. In India, Vibemac is represented by E.H. Turel, the company famous for providing complete solutions for the Garment Industry. The company exclusively represents some leading brands like Eastman, China Typical, Duerkopp Adler, Macpi and many others.
Enrico Guerreschi, Vibemac Sales Director Worldwide Market, talks to Team StitchWorld about new directions of his company after the recent management changes.
SW: What changes have taken place at Vibemac?
Enrico: Vibemac spa is a solid and healthy company having tech-solutions and products which are always a step ahead and still in constant development and evolvement. Moreover, the technical side of the company belonged to our family since the 80’s, headed by my father Carlo Guerreschi, the man behind technical innovations. So we have no doubts on the growth prospects of the company and its capabilities. The fact is that there is no real takeover. In reality this company belonged to us ever since it was started and it is only now that we are fully in control.
SW: What value did you see in the company when you opted for a complete buyout?
Enrico: As I said, the company represents strong values which come from the know-how of our skilled engineers and technicians. Our factories are equipped with the latest technologies: like the full automatic lines at the spare parts stock division, the CNC prototype division right till the full automatic CNC production line where even the sewing heads are being produced. The factory building is yet another vaunt for the management; in fact it is one of the most vanguard buildings in the area.
SW: Automation is the key to new and improved way of working. Who and how Vibemac strives to continuously offer new and innovative products in the market?
Enrico : I say with confidence that the technical and sales teams are the heart beats of this company and it begins at our R&D office, where Carlo Guerreschi manages his core team of two engineers, Mirko Pizzini and Luca Campedelli. Together with the help of technicians, they develop and test new solutions and improvements of the machines based on the customers’ needs. I would like to remind you that my father created this company 29 years ago and he is still the one who works harder than everyone else… He comes to office every morning with new machine ideas and he is the last to leave.
The engineering team is well experienced. They have been working for Vibemac for almost 10 years. To provide the machines with “electronic abilities” Carlo has another team of Engineers, Roberto Lavarini, Technician’s Manager and Mirko, Electronic Engineer. Their aim is to improve reliability, achieve high performance (the energy voltage is different in different countries, therefore some electronic troubles may occur) and to decrease the vibration that comes from the engine, as vibration can turn out to be dangerous for some machine parts (problems that have now been solved, thanks to Luca).
Another specialized technician, Marco Falzi, with the help of his team addressed the specialized changes required in the machines to address particular fashion trends and fabric type.
The four Senior Technicians and Production Managers have been working for Vibemac for almost 15 years. Edgar Alves and Jay Nugessur spend three weeks per month overseas, installing new production lines, improving dead times or bad set up of the lines and training local technicians. While, Djordje Miodragovic and Alessandro Zatta take care of European and Italian customers.
It’s very important for Vibemac to let grow a trustful relationship between its employees, besides, ‘maintaining confidentiality’ of the know-how on new developments.
SW: Who are your sales and marketing people and how do they intend to provide better service to their customers?
Enrico : The sales team consists of Giada Berardo and Elisa Brighenti, they take care of all enquiries and offers that may come in. Since I have been nominated Sales Director, I lead both the Sales and Marketing Departments with Simon responsible for the sales of the machine globally. We are reachable 24X7 around the year.
All the employees in Vibemac speak at least two languages (Italian included), everyone is specialized in his own field but is able to replace the others to ensure that no work suffers in case the person is unavailable.
As I said before we care about the customers’ needs, accordingly we bring new developments and initiate changes in the machines to suit them. The new management has standardized the operations and has given more responsibility to the each employee. This is our way to motivate and get the best from every employee to be able to serve the customer better.
SW: What are the services currently being offered under ‘turnkey’ project? In which all countries turnkey project services are available?
Enrico : Our team along with the agents’ team are always ready to help the existing customers improve the productivity and remove bottlenecks. We also undertake turnkey projects, a service which is given for free to the existing and new customers/factories.
Based on some part of the information shared by the customers and in some part developed by us, we draw up a list of machines that the customer will need in his production line. Not all the machines are Vibemac’s machines, for example there will be the need of standard one/two needle machines, for every operation. Moreover, we will find how long does it take to perform that operation, how many machines of that type he will need to achieve requested production and for every machine he will see percentage of usage in order to find out which machines can be used to do other operations.
In the next step, we will display hypothetic production line set up depending on how the factory is built, in order to save space and to decrease loss of time. In the next step we’ll give details of air consumption and power consumption for every machine, so the customer will be able to buy the right air compressor and set up the energy lines he would need to run the production line properly.
SW: Is the new management thinking about launching ‘economy’ range of automatic sewing machines (probably manufactured in Asia)?
Enrico : We have developed some new machines for the upcoming IMB show. We’ll have two lines of products, the Silver Line and the Platinum Line. This will give two options to our esteemed customers. The Silver Line will have all the most important features, which have always differentiated our products from the other sewing machines, but at a more competitive price.
The new machines, which we’ll present at the IMB, will be launched in the new Platinum Line. That will be a surprise and even a shock to many persons involved in our business field.
Come to the IMB and we will show you what the “Made in Italy” can do…
SW: How do you plan to serve the customers better in India?
Enrico: India is a big market for us and Viraf Turel of E.H. Turel is one of our esteemed agents. Our experts have trained his team. Not only that, we also have our technicians working closely with the E.H. Turel team to service the industry. As you can understand, it’s not just a matter of business; it’s a matter of friendship, reciprocal trust and respect. It is very tough to operate in a worldwide market, but the companies in India can count on our multi-racial team. Four senior technicians and production managers are always ready to leave for any kind of trouble the customers might have at any destination.
