Case studies Brambo

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BRAMBO S.P.A. Brambo was, since early ‘70, a society leading the market of braking systems for the automotive industry (automobiles and industrial vehicles). The market growth and the increasing awareness for the relevance of safety issues in the automotive industry has led the top management to undertake, since ’80, several huge investments in the production system. The plant was hence been divided in two specialized production units, both located in Bergamo Province: the first was devoted to the production of “braking pads”, the second to the realization of “braking systems” (calipers). Whilst the production of braking pads had not shown any significant issues, the organization and management of the plant realizing braking systems were a real trouble for the Board. At the end of 1992, following the encouraging market expectations of an effective recovery for the automotive sector, the responsible of the calipers’ plant, Eng. Magalico, proposed a plan for a further development of the plant, including an investment of several million euros in new and more efficient numerical control machines for the Department Metalworking workshop. The plan was formulated on the basis of sales forecasts provided by the Sales Director (Eng. Rossetti) as well as from the estimated allocation product-machine used by the Planning division (Eng. Bertani). In the same period, a radical change in the organizational structure of Brambo S.p.A. took place, shifting from a (typical) structure by functions. The new structure had thus new positions in the organizational chart, as well as new managers, quite often coming from the automotive or automotive-related industries. In particular. the responsibility of the function “Industrialization” was assigned to a new manager – Eng. Jacopini – recently…