Born to reduce weight: the sustainable lightness of aluminium and Tecnotubi’s strategy

Born to reduce weight: the sustainable lightness of aluminium and Tecnotubi’s strategy
Categories:: Rassegna stampa
Posted on 14 Ott 2019

Born to reduce weight: the sustainable lightness of aluminium and Tecnotubi’s strategy

by Paolo Gubitta

The passion for everything that flies and the experience as a conscript in the paratroopers explain this constant search for “lightness”. The inborn desire to explore new applications, processes and solutions «motu proprio» and not as an answer to a specific client’s needs explains its ability to live with ambiguity and uncertainty and adapt to the circumstances, The career of Gianfranco Pauletto, 54 year old leader of Tecnotubi in Concordia Sagittaria (Venice), is rooted in these two cornerstones.

Founded in 1988 with his father, Giovanni, and brother, Pierluigi, Tecnotubi is specialised in the design and manufacture of light alloy frames that, after the «annus horribilis» of 2012, when turnover hit a historical low of under one million euros, set out on the path to growth; the 800 thousand euros of 2012 become 1.6 million in 2014 and 3.2 million in 2019 with a staff of 30 people. The company's growth is sustained by some wise decisions. Transferability of the resources. Frames are the elements that give form and stability to the objects for which they are the supporting structure. Tecnotubi’s ones “support” products that range from furniture to emergency room equipment, from railways to aviation, from agricultural machinery to motor races. For a small company (as it is today), it is far from easy to be competitive in sectors that have specific safety standards and regulations, that have to meet highly diverse aesthetic and functional needs and that have few or no interdependencies. Whoever is successful shows an awareness of their key skills and of counting on a team able to monitor and develop these skills, making them difficult to imitate and managing to transfer them rapidly from one sector to another. They have managed to do this in Tecnotubi following a “no frills” strategy: full concentration on the performance of the product, continuous technological scouting to keep abreast of innovation, targeted partnerships with renowned and demanding clients to always work on challenging projects. From frames to lifting systems. It is reductive to say that Tecnotubi is solely a “frame factory”. In practice, adopting co-design and co-development spine logics and investing in ultra light alloy machining technology, the company enters into the value system of its clients, supporting them in innovating their applications for which a reduction in weight is perceived as a value by the user. Moreover, for some time the company has worked on the manufacture of both manual and electro-hydraulic cruciform lifting mechanisms able to optimise the functionality and performance of the objects they are used in. It’s like saying that Tecnotubi has shifted from the manufacture of the “structure of a product” (the frame) to the design of a “complex system” that incorporates highly different technologies in terms of know-how and processes. It’s not usual for small companies to do all that.

Words count. Tecnotubi’s turning point came in 2012 and it is not by chance. In the spring of that year, Gianfranco Pauletto illustrated his vision for the company: «‘Light ideas’ doesn’t mean taking things lightly but removing weight from things». Striving to crystallise the raison d'être of an organisation is the best way of communicating to the staff and to all the stakeholders the ideals, values and ambitions that set the goals, guide the behaviour and support the commitment also in difficult times. Many will recall the “The unbearable lightness of being” by Milan Kundera. May it be a good omen for “The bearable lightness of frames” by Tecnotubi!

CORRIERE DELLA SERA 14 OCTOBER 2019

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