Visit to NovaRossi in
Italy!
(Written by Wolfgang Lindner)
(Written by Wolfgang Lindner)
A couple of weeks ago I
and Marcus got an offer from Klas Runesson at Hobby Produkter (Swedish
distributor for NovaRossi) which we could not refuse….. J
“Do you want to join me for a travel to NovaRossi in Italy?”. Well, you can
imagine that we did not have to think too long! Actually, it took 0.1s and then
we answered “YES!!”
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| NovaRossi HQ and Factory |
So, off we went with Ryanair flight from Gothenburg
Thursday 20th. Destination was Bergamo in Italy. NovaRossi HQ is
located in Montecelli Brusati which is just 45km away from Bergamo Airport. We
thought that we would meet the spring in Italy but the weather was really bad… L
A lot of rain and thunderstorms. Well, you cannot get everything in life and
this time we did not go to race so the rain was not a problem… J
We picked up our rental car and headed towards our hotel.
Friday morning we drove
over to NovaRossi and was welcomed by Mr NovaRossi himself, Cesare Rossi, his
wife Graziosa Rossi and sales manager Malick Diop.
From the beginning we felt
us really welcome. Almost directly we went out in the factory for a “tour
Grande” of the complete facility. We did see a lot, from raw materials, casting
and all the processing up to finished engines. For obvious reasons we cannot
show any photos but I can tell you that Mr. Rossi and Mr. Diop did an
outstanding job showing us the different high precision machines, people
manufacturing all the parts/assembling of engines. As you might imagine there
are a lot of machines which are semi or full automated BUT also some high
quality manual work done by the NovaRossi staff. We learnt that many of the 60
employees have been working +20 years for NR. The lady producing glow plugs has
been with NovaRossi for 28 years and the gentleman mounting piston and conrod
was doing his 38th year at NovaRossi. I believe that this shows the passion and
loyalty to the company and the management team.
In today global world it
is very common that companies outsource part of their business, like producing
parts, to other companies in low cost countries. This is not the case at NovaRossi
as almost 100% is made in house. From our understanding the only parts produced
outside is the inner/outer ring for the engine main ball bearing and the balls.
The assembly of the main ball bearing is then made in-house. The interesting
thing is that Mr. Rossi himself takes part in the production! He checks the
tolerances for the main ball bearings. I must say that I like this man. This is
so very different from the corporate world I earn my living…. J
After the factory tour we
got also a glimpse into the workshop where engines are breaked-in. Mr Frederico Sala, engineer at NovaRossi, showed
use the facility which is a rather small room, with simple but effective tools
and fixtures. We had a rather interesting discussion about how to break in
engines. I will not reveal any details but what I can say is that we, at least I,
are too conservative when it comes to rpm and engine temperature….. J
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| Excellent lunch with amazing people |
After the fantastic
tour of the factory we went for lunch in a beautiful restaurant in the Italian
country side. What a team of people there was round the table! Mr. and Mrs.
Rossi, their daughter Erica, Mr. Columbini (NovaRossi distributor in Italy), Mr.
Diop, Klas, Marcus and myself.
During the lunch we had a
lot of interesting discussions about the development of the RC car sport from
early days until now, where are we heading, what can be done to bring back the
fun into the sport and, maybe most importantly, how to manage and handle the
environmental areas (nitro, tire additives and more). It is interesting to hear
that NovaRossi for a number of years have suggested to the governing bodies how
to eliminate nitro and still have high performance engines. For me it is rather
clear that governing bodies need not just to listen to RC industry companies,
they need to setup cooperation to set the scene for the future!! Not sure if
you all remember this but we did suggest to EFRA a new constitution 2009 which
also covered the area how EFRA and RC industry should cooperate. I hope that
will happen in the near future and I am still optimistic. Let us see…. :-)
We also talked about the
challenge from the globalization of businesses around the world. More and more
manufacturer moves the production to Asia to reduce the cost structure. We
believe that NovaRossi will never do this because they have a very skilled and
dedicated staff that has a tremendous knowledge. How can you replace that when
moving somewhere else? I also get the feeling that NovaRossi sets high level of
social responsibility for their employees who all live close to the factory.
Maybe something for others companies to learn from….
After returning from a
fantastic lunch the time was reserved for business discussion between NovaRossi
and Hobby Produkter. As you might understand, I will not writing anything about
those discussions here…. J
Time flies when you have
fun and at 17:00 it was time for saying Good Bye to our new friends in Italy
but before we went back to Bergamo in our super-duper 1,2L Ford Fiesta we had a
photo session:
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From left to right: Wolfgang, Klas, Malick Diop, Mrs. Rossi,
Marcus and Mr. Rossi
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It is really hard to put
words on the feeling we had when leaving NovaRossi factory. As you probably
understand from this report we were very, very pleased with our visit and the
time Mr. and Mrs. Rossi, Malick Diop and NovaRossi staff spent with us. Imagine
yourself; here you have the management team of the world leading engine
manufacturer spending 7-8 hours with us during the visit. What can we say?
Very, very impressive!!
The last night we changed
hotel and moved into the center of Bergamo. This is a fascinating city with and
old center really worth a visit. Excellent views, building and super good food.
We, Marcus, Klas and
Wolfgang, hope to meet the great and dedicated people from NovaRossi soon!!
Until Next Time,
Ciao
Wolfgang, Marcus and Klas
