Competitiveness: the logic of large volumes applied to niche markets

Competitiveness and safety

It is well known that industrial electronics market is among the most competitive. Indeed, in addition to the usual technical-commercial factors, we must add another aspect: safety. The approach adopted by Elemaster is effective and innovative: it consists in the application of the methodologies and technologies typical of large-scale production in niche industrial sectors. Niches such as the railway sector, the medical sector and some segments of industrial automation, in which volumes are very small.

Together with this winning strategy, we must add something as important as difficult to quantify: creativity, a value that characterize Italian companies worldwide. In the case of Elemaster, “creativity” means both superior production quality and ability to identify innovative solutions to problems and criticalities. Competence, creativity and innovation allow Elemaster to project for companies all over the world.

Verticalization of processes: integrated process

Another competitive element that characterizes Elemaster’s entrepreneurial vision is the verticalization of processes. This approach allows the company to offer integrated solutions starting from the feasibility study, up to seamless CE certification. In this way, development times and consequently costs are greatly reduced. Once the design phase has been completed, the tests passed and the conformity certification obtained, the production can be carried out in one of the Elemaster facilities around the world, in Italy, Romania, Tunisia, China, India or the United States.

Operating in several industrial sectors, Elemaster is able to provide its customers with a great wealth of knowledge and skills, a transfer of knowledge that benefits the competitiveness. From the design to the production of the Printed Circuit Boards; from the assembly of the electronic equipment to the laboratory tests to certify that it meets international standards, no other company has reached the Elemaster level of verticalization. All the other players produce a single component, or work in partnership: no one governs the process in an integrated way like Elemaster.

How does the production verticalization process take place in Elemaster?

Once the simulation is over, it begins the so-called “empirical phase”. The goal is to obtain the certainty that the prototype corresponds 100% to the requirements of functional, safety and electromagnetic compatibility. The latter check is carried out in the echoic chambers, steel structures lined with ferrite panels within which no electromagnetic signal can enter or exit.

The exam consists in evaluating the electromagnetic compatibility of an element with respect to the others that are part of the system or the installation environment. The technical questions concern two aspects: the first is the amount of electromagnetic noise generated by the object to be produced; the second parameter to be evaluated concerns the “resistance” of the object to interference and disturbances produced by the system and / or the environment in which the object is placed. Elemaster’s laboratory simulates all situations and environments required by international legislation to ensure that the object maintains all the predefined functional and safety characteristics.

Environmental tests are also carried out in the Elemaster laboratory, with mechanical shocks up to 120 g of acceleration, and test in the climatic chamber (temperature and humidity). The final result is the “test report”. If variations are necessary, the evidence produced by the test will drive the design corrections. If, on the other hand, the tests give green light, the process involves the phase that certifies the product’s suitability for marketing.

Certifications

Elemaster is certified for the various market sectors, ISO 001 (automation) ISO 13485 (medical) ISO / TS22163 (railways) AS9100 (avionics and defence) IATF 16949 (high-tech mobility) and ISO 14001 for environmental aspects. For each different industrial sector, Elemaster adopts the certifications that allow the design to be carried out according to standardized processes: it means that it speaks the same language as its customers and adheres perfectly to their standards of quality, reliability, safety. Last but not least, Elemaster’s work is constantly audited by certification bodies and customers.

Human capital and Start-Up

Intellectual capital is Elemaster’s most important asset. Constantly in search of high potential professional figures, the company is in close contact with the Politecnico di Milano, and other national and international research institutes together with which it organizes training sessions and workshops whose goal is to inform future engineers about the activities and on the company’s projects. Every year Elemaster hosts technological Startups in its headquarters, to which it offers the support of its Research and Development structure with a team of 50 specialists.

The young Startups companies can thus count on the help of over 500 specialists who can transform their projects into prototypes and the latter into series production. In this way, a startup of four or five people find itself immersed in an environment that offers them hundreds and hundreds of man-years of experience, knowledge and skills. Elemaster thus becomes the technological ecosystem for Startups, acting as an accelerator for growth and development.