CASE Construction Equipment received a Bronze Level World Class Manufacturing (WCM) certification for its European Excavator Hub in San Mauro, Italy following an independent audit. This achievement comes on the back of the brand’s investment in transforming the facility into a flagship production site for excavators in the EMEA region.
WCM is one of the global manufacturing industry’s highest standards for the integrated management of manufacturing plants and processes. It is a pillar-structured system based on continuous improvement, designed to eliminate waste and loss from the production process by identifying objectives such as zero injuries, zero defects, zero breakdowns and zero waste.
The plant achieved its Bronze Level certification for its successful implementation of the Focus Improvement pillar, which drives the other pillars in managing projects to reduce and eliminate losses at the site in terms of productivity and material. The plant further demonstrated strengths in a number of Managerial Pillars within the WCM program, including Clarity of Objective and the Allocation of Highly Qualified People.
The San Mauro plant recently underwent an extensive redevelopment project that fits within CASE’s manufacturing strategy for the region. The strategy aims to optimise the brand’s European footprint with the creation of two production hubs and focusing manufacturing expertise on specific product families in each facility: one for excavators in San Mauro, the other for wheeled equipment in Lecce.
The redevelopments at San Mauro have included the introduction of crawler excavators with Sumitomo technology into production at San Mauro, building on more than 20 years of successful partnership with the Japanese manufacturer. The plant today produces crawler excavators for the European markets, wheeled excavators for EMEA, APAC and LATAM regions, and mini excavators for worldwide distribution. With the redevelopments, the San Mauro facility boasts greater flexibility in responding to customer needs and observing specific customisation requirements, providing customers with products of consistently high quality.
Giacomo Stella, San Mauro Plant Manager, is very pleased with the Bronze Level certification: “The World Class Manufacturing approach has meant a smooth introduction of new products and practices at the plant. Every member of the production team is involved in the process, takes responsibility for every step and for identifying possible improvements. For several months everyone at the plant has pulled together and, with great teamwork, driven our progress towards this excellent result. We are very proud of this achievement, and we will carry on applying World Class Manufacturing continuous improvement principles to work towards further improvements as we go forward.”