Conceria Antiba becomes 4.0 with a new 15,000 square metre factory equipped with interconnected machinery. This Tuscan company moved its headquarters from Santa Croce sull’Arno to Ponte a Egola, investing almost 15 million euros. The move took place gradually to arrive to the current complete industrial set-up in March 2022. This relocation doubled the production capacity, which today is 100,000 m2 of finished leather per month. The number of employees (average age: 42) has increased from 96 in 2021 to 130 (considering direct and indirect employees).
The new Conceria Antiba
In setting up the new tannery, the entire structure and production process was streamlined, starting with the control of incoming goods and ending with finishing. For example, Antiba has equipped itself with a 4.0 shaving machine that measures every single hide in detail (weight, size, thickness). From the wet department (which counts no less than 29 drums in all, between production, R&D drums and samples), through the drying phase and ending with the finishing, everything is interconnected. The chemical dosing plant is fully automated: the personnel enter the receptacle and the plant, created especially for Antiba, takes care of the preparation of the mixtures, while the handling of the chemical preparation for finishing is done by 4 automatic shuttles.
Savings calibrated to the millilitre
“In dosing the products, there is no more human error, everything is calibrated to the millilitre,” say the company. We have therefore estimated a saving of 20% of the chemicals used. Also, from an environmental point of view, we try to zero waste thanks to the continuous monitoring and control of the process. The whole system is custom-developed for Antiba. This has led to a real improvement in the lives of our employees, who hare safer and handling less goods in their work”.
Adopting a new working method
In this revolution of the industrial process, “the most challenging part was training the staff,” says Graziano Balducci, who runs the company together with his brother Paolo, “because it involved adopting a new working method. It was a real investment in people, in skilled labour, in improving life in the company”.
New investments
Among the new investments is the expansion of the laboratory, which from performing simple physical tests will also include chemical tests, in line with the strategy of internalising operations.
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