Locatelli has made a name for itself as one of the leading specialist manufacturers of rough terrains and, more recently, city cranes.
Sales manager Michele Mortarino gives an overview of the company’s history: “Locatelli has been in cranes since 1954. We’ve focused on rough terrains for the past 30 years. We have the widest range on the market, going from 12t to 60t.”
Mortarino is in charge of the company’s export business. He says that the company’s main overseas markets are Africa, the Middle East, South America and the Far East. Locatelli has recently focused on improving its exports, Mortarino says, and today almost 70% of its sales come from outside Italy, with most of these outside the EU.
Three years ago, Locatelli was bought from its founder, Enzo Locatelli, by Venpa, one of Italy’s biggest equipment rental companies. Mortarino admits that many observers had doubts about the ability of a rental company to push a crane manufacturer forward. However, he says, the new owner has invested in new products, developing the brand and building market share.
A key aspect of this investment has been focused on developing Locatelli’s facilities and production processes. The company bought a new site at Dolo, near Venpa’s Venice headquarters, to act as a sales head office and parts warehouse.
The challenge has been to keep up with Locatelli’s rivals: “Our biggest competitors are part of international groups, with more powerful investment capabilities,” Mortarino says, “So we have to always update, to compete on the technical side, and to always take care of customers.”
One way this attitude of competing with the industry’s giants is apparent, at least when you visit Locatelli’s Mapello, Bergamo, assembly plant, is in the impressive steps the company has taken to build a well-organised, modern, production line.
Cranes Today has visited many new lines over recent years, all designed in accordance with lean manufacturing principles. It may be a sign of the flexibility that Locatelli’s comparatively small size allows it, but the line at Mapello is one of the most impressive the magazine has seen; certainly, the company is operating at a similar level to those it identifies as competitors.
Andrea Meneghetti was brought in two years ago from Atlas Copco to head the company’s technical department. He says: “We invested in an update of existing models; the model family for some cranes was a bit old. We want to create a standardised set of parts that can be reused across our cranes, and make us more competitive on cost and quality.”
So, Locatelli now uses two standard axle designs, one for smaller cranes and one for larger capacities. The company is moving its engine supplier from Caterpillar to Cummins, and aims again to use only two types; one for cranes to 40t, and one for bigger cranes. The new cab design it has developed will be used across the range. Hydraulic systems—the distributor, pump and motor—will be the same across the range. The hardest part to standardise will be the boom designs, particularly after 20 years of developing steel structures separately for each crane, but this is coming.
Production at Mapello is split between rough terrain and city crane assembly halls, with rough terrains split again by capacity. Component groups are held together in a central warehouse, and delivered to each shift as needed. The end result is a production line that is impressively free of parts, and that has helped the company lower delivery times and costs, while improving quality control.
