Building and Hydraulics
Case Study

Eurotubi Europa and the path to data-driven digitalisation

Specialised know-how and experience metal tube profiling

Eurotubi Europa was founded in 1968 as a company specialising in the profiling of metal tubes for third parties, and has grown steadily over the years. 1999 was the breakthrough year when, after a long experience in tube processing, the company started making steel press fittings for civil and industrial plumbing applications. The “Eurotubi Pressfitting System” quickly became the company's core business. This product of Made in Italy manufacturing excellence is currently exported to more than 50 countries, making Eurotubi Europa an internationally renowned metalworking company with more than 250 employees, 4 factories and a turnover of more than 50 million. This success is due to its qualified workforce, high-quality standards, farsighted strategic thinking, and continual investments in technology and innovation.

Data - the motor of innovation

The digitalisation project at Eurotubi Europa was a response to the company's need to equip itself with tools and procedures to collect and organise as much data as possible with a view to optimising its production processes. This innovation-focussed process started with the replacement of their existing outdated software and the adoption of the Industry 4.0 paradigm.

Full spectrum connectivity for the smart factory

Computerised operational flows, interconnected production islands, and real time management of data are the main areas of action of the project developed with Var Group, for which the digital transformation process required the revision of production models, management of production planning, and the integration of a finite capacity scheduler. The core of the production system is handled by Var Group's MES solution, IoF Monitor, for the full integration of the Panthera ERP system with the processing centres via bi-directional data exchange to maximise the efficiency of business processes. An advanced on-board operator interface also makes production more efficient by handling two orders simultaneously on the same island.

This fully integrated connectivity has made it possible, supported by Var Group, to introduce integrated management of the factory machinery, guaranteeing coverage even of non-Industry 4.0 machines with micro PLCs. The effectiveness of the solutions provided by the first batch of 15 Industry 4.0 machines, consisting of four fully automated processing islands, made it possible to move on to implementation of the second batch consisting of around 90 more machines.

From solid data to the data-driven company

Solid data is the leitmotif of the entire Eurotubi project, the growth of which is focused on “corporate data culture”. In a context of strong change, instinct and intuition can no longer be sufficient for a company aiming to handle new challenges with strategic choices based on data and its interpretation. Numbers, quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis are therefore the main pillars in the positioning of Eurotubi Europa as a “Data Driven” company.

These pillars form the foundation of Eurotubi’s integration of data interpretation, using artificial intelligence for predictive analysis, the detection and prevention of non-conformities, and the precise and immediate tracking of production batches. The many scenarios opened up by these new developments include the upcoming launch of a new line of products, currently in the production engineering phase.