The problem: contract manufacturing without real visibility
Goretti Ltd. was founded in the 1970s as a craft workshop in the field of fashion accessories for footwear. Today it is part of a group of six companies and works every day for the leading fashion luxury brands in the market.
Its production is almost entirely on a contract basis: each project is unique, made according to the customer’s specifications, with manual processing side by side with different types of automatic machines.
A framework that had worked for years because of the competence of people-but as it grew, it had begun to show cracks.
The central issue was the lack of real-time visibility. Production times depended on the individual operator and were neither precisely quantifiable nor predictable. Planning a job order meant working on estimates, not data.
The consequences spread downstream:
- Communication between departments was slow and unresponsive
- When something changed on a job order that was already in process, the response was delayed
- Procurement was disconnected from actual progress: too much was ordered, too late, or shortages were discovered at the wrong time
- The paper sheets collected data that no one could really analyze
The result? Lost hours, eroded margins, and an increasing difficulty in ensuring punctuality and quality for the customer.
The solution: Portant 4.0, tailored for mixed production
Together with Digimark, Goretti implemented Portant 4.0-a modular suite consisting of three components integrated with each other and with the company’s existing ERP.
MRP (Material Requirements Planning) Automatically calculates raw material requirements for each job order, taking into account inventories, bills of materials, and supply schedules. No manual calculations, no Excel sheets to update by hand.
MES (Manufacturing Execution System) Collects and tracks real-time production data-both manual and automatic. Every stage, every operator, every feed becomes structured data. OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) is calculated automatically, so the production manager immediately sees where efficiency is being lost.
MID (Data Interchange Module) This is the component that made possible the interconnection of 70 machines with different communication protocols (PLC, CSV, TEXT). An innovation developed by Digimark to eliminate the problem of technological babel on the factory floor: the MID interprets, unifies and transmits data between machines and the MES without requiring the replacement of existing machinery.
Integration with the ERP already in place created two-way flows: orders flow down to production, actual data flow back up to management. For the first time, the two halves of the company spoke the same language.
The results
Since implementation, Goretti has achieved concrete and measurable improvements on several fronts.
-60% time to calculate job requirements. What used to require hours of manual labor is now generated automatically by the system, with accurate data updated in real time.
70 machines interconnected according to Industry 4.0 criteria. Structured interconnection provides access to tax benefits under the regulations, turning an operational investment into a tax benefit as well.
Zero downtime and reduced lead time. With real-time visibility into every production step, bottlenecks are identified before they become problems. Jobs move forward without untracked waits.
Elimination of paper sheets. Data are digitally recorded by operators and searchable in PDF or Excel format. No manual transcription, no risk of data loss.
Increased responsiveness to unforeseen events. When something changes-a customer change, an urgency, a material change-the system allows immediate action to be taken, with full visibility into the status of each current job order.
Improving the quality of customer service. With order management under control, response times have improved. As Luca Correani, Goretti’s IT manager, summarizes, “With the management software we are able to keep order management under control at all times, so we have improved customer response times.”
A note on the method
Goretti and Digimark have been collaborating for more than five years. The Goretti case is an example of how deep customization of software-adapted to the company’s actual processes, not the other way around-is one of the determining factors in the success of an MES project.
“Strong software customization and fast response in support are Digimark’s strengths” -Luca Correani, IT Manager, Goretti srl.
Does your production have the same critical issues?
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