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Mauro Busolini, CEO of Legnotecnica Srl, reveals how it was possible to produce a perfectly stable knockdown table 

The secret is the bore


12.01.2012 -

by Michele Scozzai

 

One percent. Now, it's just a memory. Irritating, difficult to shake off. At the time it was all that the owner of the company, where I worked as Head of Administration, was prepared to offer me in return for all my years of hard work and sacrifice. It was 1980 when I first started working there as a humble accountant, company turnover was 420 million lire. Not long after that, I found myself in charge of the company accounts.

 

Those were financially important years: the European Community budget was introduced along with the Tax Consolidation Act. The company had 27 agents in various places around the world, and in 1994 the value of production hit the 18 billion lire mark. I felt that I had played a significant role in achieving this success for the company, and so I went to the owner and asked for a stake in the company. We talked for three hours and at the end of the meeting he offered me a 1% stake. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

I told him that I'd think about it. That night, at home, I sat down with a notepad and the only thing that I managed to write was a big, fat "1", I pressed down so hard that you could see the imprint on the last page of the pad. My last pay check had been for 3,650,000 lire. The next morning I resigned and the same evening, together with my foreman, we took a gamble and founded Legnotecnica. It was 1994 and I was 34 years old, my daughter Marta was born the same day. I don't know if walking away was a mistake but I do know that it was the right thing for me. Following your heart is never easy: indecision, uncertainty and hesitation are easy.

 

The greatest gift I've been blessed with is the people who work with me. People are everything, alone we're nothing. They are who I feel most responsible for (after my family, of course). At Legnotecnica we've learnt to put quality at the forefront. That's how we've gained the respect of our customers and suppliers. In 2005, one of our most important customers asked us to produce an extending knockdown table with complete stability.

 

There was just one solution: fix the table top to the legs using a threaded rod which goes straight through the legs. That way we would have a product similar to a solid single piece. The problem was that no one in the world, until then, had ever managed to create a bore in wood longer than a metre (the length of the legs). But this wasn't a challenge we could lose: if we didn't meet the customer's demands, we would lose an order worth €750,000 and we would be forced to get rid of 15 employees. They gave us six months. After that, for reasons of cost, production would be moved to Croatia.

 

AREA's intervention


The first attempt was disheartening: we bought an €800 drill bit and, with a normal drill, we tried to bore a piece of wood. Just 10 centimetres in we realised that the bore had gone off to the right and had come out of the body, damaging the bit. I was already starting to think about how I would break the news to my team that they would soon have to start looking for new jobs. Next, we asked a university department for help but they wanted more than €25,000 just to do a feasibility study and there was no guarantee of success.

 

I told them thanks but no thanks. Then, one day, I met with AREA Science Park, my last hope. The impact was positive. We decided to give it a go and work together to find the best solution. AREA checked to see if somebody else had tried to bore a similar hole in the past. We found out that, in the 80s, there had been tests done in Japan and Canada but with very poor results. We were going into battle without a weapon, but we couldn't surrender.

 

We analysed patents and techniques for wood boring systems. Wood isn't always just wood: its density, elasticity, hardness and resistance are all variables which can dramatically complicate things. We ran various tests and slowly we started to see the first results. With the help of Catas, and working with another company AREA told us about, we were able to adapt technology which was already used in different sectors to our needs. We discovered that the secret lies in the bit: we built a prototype and got encouraging results. We hadn't won the battle but we were getting there.

 

The first patents

 

A few weeks later, we developed a machine which allowed us to make a 120 cm through- bore. We'd achieved something nobody had ever managed to do before. We could bore any wooden part with an almost negligible tolerance. Our jobs were safe and so was the company. Our new tables had certified 100/100 resistance. Unlike normal knockdown tables, where the legs are fixed to the top using four brackets, our products didn't wobble or flex.

 

We patented the technology and made an agreement with the customer not to sell our through-bore to anyone else for three years. We haven't stopped growing since. In 2004, turnover was 3.4 million, it peaked at 4.2 million, before being hit by the global economic crisis. In the wood sector we are still one of the top companies in the Triveneto area: today we have 45 employees (not including subcontractors), we hold five patents, produce 2.5 million pieces of a year, we've invested 8 million into the factory and we are more or less debt free. The exclusivity rights of our customer expired and now our through-bore is used by four companies.

 

Innovation

Innovation means changing manufacturing processes, creating products which can't be copied and have a competitive quality-price ratio. To understand innovation, true innovation, you need to live in the factory, understand the day to day problems, and deal with the issues of balancing the books and minimal profits. It is unlikely that a politician or university professor who calls for innovation really knows what they're saying.

 

What I feel most today is that there is a need for innovation in the sales network: I need someone who will tell me if there are market opportunities for my products or not. I need experts to tell me how and where to sell my products. I need consultants who can truly assess the commercial value of my patents. This is where we need both national and local governments to intervene. This is the real key to saving our jobs and promoting Italy on the international market.

 

Hidden opportunities


In 2009 it occurred to me that the through-bore could be used in different applications. I do wonder why it took me four years to think of it. The opportunity was right there, I just couldn't see it. Using the technology that we created with AREA, we produced a cot which when no longer needed could easily be turned into a storage unit, a sofa or an infant bed. The most exciting new product though, is a 90x90 cm table which can be extended to 180cm with a top that can be completely dismantled, and is made up of 18 interchangeable and fully personalisable parts.

 

Packaged, it takes up just 0.037 cubic metres, against the 0.137 of a normal table. Just in terms of transport costs, the savings involved are enormous. If we are able to fully realise the potential, we'll conquer the world with this product: distributors are lining up to stock it both in Italy and Europe. The strategy we choose to use for its sale will be an important step for Legnotecnica.

 

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