Intertecnica has decades of experience in the production of components for cold room doors. Our in-depth knowledge of this specific production area is combined with our desire to always find new solutions to best meet our customers' needs. Our goal is to not just be a supplier, but a true partner capable of listening to customers' needs and suggesting custom solutions. We know that this is the best way to create lasting professional relationships based on trust, and to constantly renew ourselves while continuing to market products of the highest quality.
Read on to learn how we operate at Intertecnica and what the working methods are that distinguish us and make our offers to customers unique.
From design to production: Intertecnica's internal supply chain
Intertecnica handles all stages of component production in-house, along with all the different steps leading to commercialisation of our products. R&D, product design, mould making, injection moulding, assembly and final testing are all carried out at our premises. This mode of operation offers us unquestionable advantages. Not only does it allow us to minimise technical time and provide important guarantees with regard to respecting the timing of the various processes, but it also ensures that all the various professionals work while keeping the need to study the various products in relation to their practical application in mind. Starting with the design phase of each component, the focus lies on aspects related to easing installation, adjustability, maintenance and so on, in order to provide customers with products that perfectly meet their needs.
To make production even more efficient, around 80 per cent of Intertecnica's products are managed using Kanban. This allows us to always have semi-finished products ready for assembly, thus reducing response times to customer requests, as we can better manage material or colour changes and be more responsive to market requirements.
In this way, we guarantee customers not only complete traceability of every component bought from us, but also greater flexibility in the case of last-minute requests and great reliability with regard to delivery times. The possibility of counting on short, certain delivery times also allows customers to avoid large stocks of components in the warehouse, because their orders can be fulfilled quickly, when they are needed.
The production of Intertecnica components
Intertecnica components are manufactured entirely in-house, where a group of specially instructed and trained workers operate a total of 10 injection moulding machines. The materials we process (around 200 tonnes per year) are carefully selected according to their mechanical strength and ability to withstand high temperature changes without deformations. The same attention to strength and resistance is also evident in the design of each individual piece.
We have recently implemented the MES in our plant, a production performance meter that allows us to analyse the quality of our production, the amount of waste and the performance of individual departments, with the aim of improving the process as a whole. The MES also allows us to control our production in real time and make accurate assessments of product quality. If necessary, we can trace each individual component that has left our factory, going back to both its production batch and the batch of raw material from which it was made.
This control system allows us to accurately verify the compliance of all our products with the required quality standards. Each component is checked twice: once after moulding, to verify the dimensional conformity and the absence of burrs, and once after assembly, through a visual check of the finished part. The fact that the moulding and assembly departments are physically close and constantly communicate with each other is an important advantage in this respect, because any problems are immediately reported and resolved. This allows us to provide customers with products that are always perfect.
Quality and research for the development of increasingly high-performance products
Intertecnica was established and developed in an area — North-Eastern Italy — rich in global excellence, where technologically advanced and highly innovative products are produced and exported all over the world. In this context, the company forms part of an extremely demanding supply chain, where quality standards run very high on behalf of both suppliers and customers. Everything we market must guarantee excellent performance in terms of durability, reliability and compatibility. This is because our components are designed to remain on the market for very long periods of time and must therefore allow for replacement, even decades later, with new, perfectly compatible products.
To achieve such results, Intertecnica places particular focus on maintaining its more than 400 industrial moulds, which undergo regular scheduled overhauls. It also carefully selects the raw materials it uses for its products. All the materials we use are subject to various stress tests in our laboratory, which allow us to verify their mechanical resistance in terms of both their life cycle and their ability to withstand shocks and impacts. Our R&D department also devotes great attention to research into new types of plastics, with the aim of evaluating their possible future industrial applications. This research is aimed at finding new materials that still guarantee the same general performance in terms of strength, yet are more environmentally sustainable, lighter or more aesthetically versatile.
Intertecnica as an industrial partner for new product development
The features of a company like Intertecnica make it the ideal partner for all customers who need a specialised professional partner to turn their projects into reality. Our broad experience in the production of components for cold room doors has enabled us to become collaborators and partners of many of our customers, who today ask for our advice in developing new products together.
Some of these customers used to manufacture their components in-house, but they have realised over time that managing this aspect of production themselves created various problems in relation to cost control, logistics management and overall quality. Intertecnica therefore presents itself as a partner for such customers, producing ad hoc components for them. In this way, customers can rely on the know-how of Intertecnica's R&D department, avoiding the need to invest internal resources and decidedly simplifying their business, while maintaining certainty with regard to timing, costs and the quality of the finished product.
This is made possible by our willingness to listen to customers' needs and provide personalised, tailored solutions as we work to continuously update and improve our products.