New Work at the Pasta Factory

Barilla is not the world market leader by chance. One reason is that the venerable Italian company always questions the status quo.

Overview

The project at a glance

Challenge

In Barilla’s highly automated main plant, robots are nothing new. But the world market leader wants to set the benchmark for Industry 4.0 at all of its locations worldwide.

Implementation

A project for continuous improvement. The insight: If employees are at the center of the effort, transformation can be a success.              

Result

What works so well at the main plant in Parma is good enough for Barilla’s worldwide production network of 28 locations.

Challenge

Effectiveness, Efficiency, Sustainability

Barilla wants to be one of the good guys and does a lot to make it so: skips environmentally hazardous palm oil; reformulates recipes to lower the fat, salt and sugar in pasta, sauces and baked goods; uses almost exclusively recyclable packaging; has ambitious goals for reducing carbon emissions, water and energy consumption. Its biggest factory, near Parma, which produces a quarter of its global total, is largely automated. But Barilla wants to take the next step and become more effective, efficient and sustainable.

"Transformation means that we’re one thing today and something else tomorrow. So we need to reinvent ourselves all the time."
Paolo Barilla
Vice Chairman
Barilla Group
Paolo Barilla

Implementation

Transfer: from Porsche to Pasta

First, Barilla managers visited Porsche’s automotive plants in Germany, where they saw first-hand how to forge ahead with transformation. Then they got to work with the consultants from Porsche Consulting in their own main plant, the biggest pasta factory in the world, to set up a continuous improvement project. The objective was to train employees in a highly automated factory and get them excited about new technologies and modes of working. It was a question of cultural transformation.

28

Barilla aims to establish Industry 4.0 at 28 factories around the world.

Result

The Recipe: Centering Employees!

The project with Porsche Consulting at the heart of the company, the state-of-the-art factory on the outskirts of Parma, was a success: Eight additional Barilla locationsfollowed its example, and soon all of its 28 production locations worldwide will benefit from the experience and insights gained here. “The Porsche Consulting approach was a perfect fit for us,” says Antonio Copercini, Chief Group Supply Chain Officer for the Barilla Group, “because it centers around the people.”

Contact

Consulting that works

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Michael Tribus
Industry Lead Consumer Goods