The 1950s

The years 1950-63 were those of the Golden Age of the post-war period. The economic growth was fostered by low cost manpower and the development of mass consumer goods in a growing market that demanded (and enabled) high specialisation, giving space to medium and small size niche companies.

A promising economic setting, both in northern Italy and in Vimercati.

The order received from Veglia Borletti for brass body lampholders for the dashboards of Fiat automobiles, and the order for gears that transfer movement for Vespa speedometers, pushed Carlo Vimercati to invest in new spaces, materials and machineries. And even more.

In the production of lampholders some of the lasting characteristics of the company appeared, those which have marked half a century of innovation: research, quality control and precision required in manufacturing electric contacts.

On September 5th 1957, the board of directors of OMV Srl presided by Carlo Vimercati and with his sister Franca Bianchi Vimercati as a counsellor and administrative director decided to buy a building lot of 3,500 sqm in the small town of Pero, and move there the works of Via Niccolini.

So it was that half a century ago, in August 1958, they inaugurated the Pero factory, in Via Vincenzo Monti 38.

The 1960s

In just a few months the work force went from 25 to 50 employees, and further 50 women worked in their homes assembling 300 bayonet lampholders an hour for Borletti. In 1963, OMV already counted 80 people between labourers and internal employees. A technical design department was created to work out specific and sophisticated products requested by clients; a department for testing and sharpening the tools was established; and the renewal and turning sectors were enlarged.

In 1962-63 the factory was expanded with a second warehouse of 400 sqm, mostly dedicated to the production of shafts for washing machines from Indesit, San Giorgio, Zoppas and Ariston. In a short time moulding, galvanising and finishing departments were developed. The 1963-67 period was the time of the first Chappuis machines for the production of lampholders, and of the mono-mandrel and pluri-mandrel Davenport machines for the production of revolution counter shafts (motorcycles). In 1967, they were replaced with the more advanced and precise six-mandrel Gieldemeister, and the Bihler RM25 punching-bending machines.

To support the production, a tool department and a tool maintenance department were established, together with the sector studying times and methods to rationalise and accelerate production.

Fundamental orders were those for switches of four hand-built pieces with contact laminates in brass, silver or copper for the doors and convenience lights of Fiat and Alfa Romeo, as well as orders for evolved lampholders for dashboards and turn signals.

At the time, these relatively simple pieces were designed with drafting devices (PL 083-084), but in constant evolution.

The 1970s and 1980s

Having gained experience and strengthend its position as a trustworthy and privileged supplier in the Italian motor-automobile market, OMV decided it was time to explore the international market.

Thanks to evolution from simple and mechanical products to elaborate electromechanical and electric components that were technically more competitive, the exploration of the French market (Renault) followed by the sales director Alberto Bombonato resulted profitable. Among the new products there were sliding door switches with electrically welded silver biscuits, hand brake and door switches, flexible moulded circuits, and, since 1981, trilobic contact commutators with three positions and 10 exit wires produced for Piaggio.

If in 1978 the turnover was 4,207,429,550 lire equal to € 2,172,956, ten years after, in 1988, it rose to 20,632,963,277 lire equal to € 10,656,036.

Leading the company were Alberto Bombonato in the sales department, Roberto Poli in production, Massimo Bianchi in human resources (until 1987), the young and German mother tongue Alberto Vimercati, who entered in 1981 in the sales sector (German area) because of the sudden and dramatic loss of his father Carlo, founder and president; and finally, in 1986, Aldo Bianchi Vimercati in administration, where he worked next to and then substituted his mother Franca, who for over a five-years’ period had conducted the business as one of the first women-managers in Italy.

In December 1989, Officine Meccaniche Vimercati became Vimercati SpA. That same year, Sandro Vimercati, one of the three brothers who had founded the company, went out of the scene.

The 1990s

The 1990s saw the effects of globalisation in the automotive sector, which caused the spreading of competition on a planetary scale, and a push towards industrial cooperation in the manufacturing process. There were robots, but also screws and bolts, sweat that flowed, intellect and physical resistance blended together.

A new company culture was born, aimed at optimising production, rich in technological know-how, relational ability and organisational capability.

The first Icomatic robot-machine appeared. It could make 1,200 strokes an hour and produce 1,000 pieces with a maximum 5% scrap (a good percentage for that time, even if today there are three scraps per million pieces). The new machine also automatically assembled the new lampholders for nylon dashboards and the cadmium steel contacts which electrically connect lamp reophores to moulded circuits. A year later, a severe quality control system was established to reduce scraps to 50 pieces per million.

In 1993-94 production doubled and between 1991 and 1994 Vimercati SpA produced 8 million lampholders for the French and Italian markets. Also the production of contacts and switches evolved thanks to the purchase of new punching-bending machines and, in May 1995 for the first time, of the new Bihler machines with 4 welding points and automatic control of welded contacts. The equipment cards and the reports of machines for assembly and disassembly of moulds also improved.

The design department worked in collaboration with partners and clients in working out final products: with CAD-CAD and 3D technologies, because drafting devices and technicians belonged to the time when wood and resin were used to shape the old prototypes.

In 1997, Alberto Vimercati left the enterprise his father had started many years before, in favour of Bombonato and Poli, and of his cousin Aldo.

THE 2000s

In this period, the foreign market adventure started in the 1980s and furthered in the 1990s became evident and profitable, especially in Germany and France. Vimercati firmly acquired the role of privileged supplier of clients like BMW, Rolls Royce, Volkswagen, Renault, PSA, Volvo, Fiat, Iveco, Alfa Romeo.

As a consequence, being inserted since the 1990s in a global competition system where Asian economies won, Vimercati changed its business strategy rethinking, modernising, “bringing culture” and introducing lean manufacturing cycles.

The structures of the company became lean and effective, even if extremely specialised. Also the supply chain and the relationships with sub-contractors and final clients were improved, thanks to a web portal which allows real-time updating for everyone.

In 2007, only 12% of production was destined to domestic market (Fiat group); the remaining 88% was sold abroad. The new electromechanical and electronic units manufactured at Pero premises, as well as the new prototypes tested according to new standards imposed by the foreign market, urged to new major investments, which on their turn caused changes in staff and a financial resettling which have just come to an end.

The old chimney

in vicolo de Castiglia

Via Niccolini, 28

Milan

Electrically welded

silver biscuits contacts

Assembly station

at today’s premises

Mr. Aldo Bianchi Vimercati

New workforce

both in factory and office

TODAY

In 1997 Aldo Bianchi Vimercati had found two new financial partners in the US General Electric and the British 3i. In May 2005 the Italian Mittel substituted GE and 3i as a majority partner (52%).

In March 2008, at last the young manager took back the majority (90%), leaving Mittel 10% of the shares. A “revolution” which has resulted in a constant growth in turnover, from 59,719,000,000 lire equal to € 30,842,290 in 1998 to 41,7 million euros in 2007.

In 2006 the collaboration with Politecnico di Milano started for the development of innovative devices for future automobiles. In the meanwhile, the manufacturing department has been automated with Tedas, Camas and BTicino machines equipped with lasers and inner camcorders, including as many control stations as the mounting phases of the units: up to fifteen steps, something like spaceships.

Scraps, then, belong to the old millennium. The most recent choice has been to move the “classic” production of X83 sliding door switches for Renault to Bacau, in Romania: 6 machines and 12 workers are in action in the land of Dracula. This is only the first phase of an expansion plan in a low cost country, where a new 2,500 sqm production facility is going to open in April 2009.

In Vimercati’s expanding warehouses, the old forklift trucks have been replaced by AGV robots (Automatic Guided Vehicles), which now outnumber human beings.

Here, floors are traced and tracked like the landing strips at Schipol airport.