So Many Lira, So Little Time - includes several automotive companies in Turin, Italy

Automotive Manufacturing & Production, June, 2001 by Christopher A. Sawyer

One of the world's most beautiful cities, Turin is home to a deep pool of automotive design, development, engineering, and supply talent. And these companies are working hard to be at the top of the shopping lists of automakers everywhere.

Ever been to a reverse trade show? No? Then you've never been to VETIS in Turin, Italy. This program runs concurrently with the Automotor and Auto Leather shows, and brings buyers identified by Institu to nazionale peril Commercio Estero (ICE) together in pre-arranged meetings with regional suppliers. Each meeting lasts 30 minutes, is conducted in English, and places each buyer in a separate room where the targeted suppliers come to call. Not surprisingly, the buyers I spoke with loved the format, wishing more trade shows would do the same. (For more information on VETIS visit: www.vetis.piemonte.org.)

Northern Italy's Piedmont region--which includes Turin--sits at the foot of the Italian Alps and accounts for 12.5%, or about 54 trillion lira, of Italy's exports. [Note: To convert lira to dollars--and rationalize those 30,000 lira lunch tabs--knock three zeros off the price, and divide by two. This will give you a ballpark estimate.] The region's unemployment rate is just under 7%, a full three percentage points under the national average, and exports from the region to the U.S. grew 20% last year. I joined a small group of international media on a whirlwind tour of the area to see what the region has to offer.

I.DE.A. Institute

This design house was founded in 1978 by Franco Mantegazza, and three of the six original I.DE.A. employees--including Mantegazza--are still with the company, which now employs 300. He is a spry 72 year-old who acts and moves as though he is still 30, is fluent in six languages, and delights in greeting his guests in their native tongues. One of I.DE.A.'s first projects was Vehicle for Subsystems (VSS) produced for Fiat, and it showed how a common platform could be designed to support a number of different variants. Fiat used the idea when creating the Fiat Tipo, which spawned seven unique models. I.DE.A. also has designed and/or engineered to production status a number of vehicles, including the Daewoo Nubira, Suzuki Move, Nissan Terrano 2/Ford Maverick, Lancia Kappa, Tata Indica, and the Fiat Palio family.

"We will never build cars," says Mantegazza, "but we do everything from the clean sheet up to the point of manufacture, even acting as program managers with the OEMs and their various suppliers. We call it '360 design'." That process takes place in the six buildings on the I.DE.A. campus in Moncaleri, which include a mini assembly line for prototype build, and offices for clients.

More recently, the company worked with Professor Hiroshi Shimizu of Keio University in Japan to design and build an 8-wheel drive, 6-wheel steer electric vehicle called "KAZ" (Keio Advanced Zero-emission car) for the 2001 Geneva Motor Show. The running prototype can reach a top speed of 186 mph, and has a reported 186-mile range at a constant 62 mph. It's one of many concepts I.DE.A. has produced over the past 23 years.

"Automotive is the key to what we do," Mantegazza says, "but we've also designed bicycles, motorcycles, scooters, boats, tractors, busses, lighters, office buildings, and telephones. I.DE.A. stays fresh by doing non-automotive design, which is why the car companies keep coming to us. We are both very creative and good engineers, doing 'Bauhaus for automotive,' "he says. "And we communicate like a family. That is the basis for I.DE.A.'s success." (www.idea.institute.it)

Fiat Mirafiori

There is no doubt that Fiat's Mirafiori plant was built when Mussolini was in power. Opened in 1939, this massive structure is cold, imposing, and devoid of the passion you expect from the Italian people. It's hidden behind an iron gate that prevents easy access from the boulevard, and hides a marble (the stuff is everywhere in Italy) statue of the Fiat Topolino (Italian for "little mouse"), the car that put Italy on wheels.

Mirafiori is massive, covering 3 million meters. There is a styling center on site, three engineering centers, a plant that builds Fiat's Torque engines and gear-boxes, a stamping plant, and an assembly plant that builds the Punto, Panda, Multipla, and Marea. Of the of the 18,000 workers on site, 11,000 are in the various plants, and 39% are women. A 2.8-km track is part of the grounds, and is still used for testing vehicles built there.

Multipla assembly (180 units/day) is a contrast in human and robotic construction. The chassis subsystems--front subframe, side rings, etc.--are built up by hand, with each piece fitted into jigs that use holes stamped in the parts as locating points. Workers then tack weld the pieces together and send the completed unit down the line where it is placed in a larger jig.

The front subframe and floorpan are mated via slots and tabs to the side rings in this fixture, and joined by robotic welders. Other robots slot-and-tab the windshield frame and roof in place before they are welded. Each vehicle is electronically tagged with a chip that gives the robot information that determines its work pattern. Next, the completed body-in-white is sent to a laser inspection station to check tolerances. This information is charted, plotted, and audited by the plant's Elementary Technical Units, and used to adjust the production process as necessary.