EPTA ITALIAN WINNER OF THE INDUSTRIAL EXCELLENCE AWARD IT WINS SILVER MEDAL IN EUROPE

Silver medal at the 23rd edition of the European Industrial Excellence Award 2019: Epta was recently awarded second best Company among the winners of the national editions. The ceremony, held in Barcelona on 4 December at the IESE Business School University campus of Navarra, saw the participation of more than 200 leading figures of the academic and industrial world to share best practices and underline the centrality of themes like sustainability, digital transformation and Industry 4.0.

The Industrial Excellence Award, of which Epta won the Italian edition in July 2019, is set up to enhance businesses, which, better than others, are able to translate strategic choices into tangible and successful actions, establishing themselves as the benchmark in their sector. Several best practices have been explored over the years: from Lean Management, to collaboration in the Supply Chain & Integration, to Operational Excellence, to Digital Business Strategy, which has been the focus of the 2019 edition.

The jury composed of teachers of Operations Management from the SDA Bocconi School of Management, selected Epta as winner of the Italian edition and, together with professors of WHU (Otto Beisheim School of Management) and of INSEAD (The Business School for the World) as finalist for the European competition thanks to the Business Unit of Limana. It stood out for the heavy investments in technological innovation and attention to the environment, and for training activities. The Group is committed to the continuous improvement of its production sites and the one in Limana is tangible evidence of this. In favour of reducing the environmental impact, Epta has realised cogeneration and photovoltaic plants and brought improvements to reduce the KOE (Kilograms of Oil Equivalent) /product.

Epta also promotes integration between digital technologies and automated lines through the adoption of 4.0 intelligent and cyber-physical solutions that they put into machine communication, storage systems and business processes, guaranteeing optimisation of production processes and improved data management to offer increasingly intelligent and hyper-connected products.

The jury particularly appreciated the creation of the glass factory plant, realised thanks to a strategic plan worth close to 10 million Euro which has allowed the Group to equip itself with new technologies and expertise, generating 100 new jobs in the Belluno area.

Innovation is also in projects that increase the knowledge of its collaborators and the of young people in the community, such as EPTAcademy developed with SDA Bocconi School of Management and the Veneto Region Dolomites HUB that Luiss Business School Hub and Dolomiti Confindustria is creating with the contribution of Epta and other local establishments.

Two other initiatives are also worthy of note: #24EptaTraining, the new learning path dedicated to all Epta Italia employees, to enhance their expertise in the technical, digital, linguistic, information technology and behavioural area. This is alongside the School of Operation: targeted at the employees of the Operations area, it is designed to be extended to employees of other departments, who can benefit from these lessons. The School of Operations is part of a wider project that includes the creation of “Schools” related to different business departments of Epta Italia with the goal of strengthening the expertise related to their specific sectors.

Finally, Epta supports the FabLab Belluno association, confirming its desire to continue to invest in the new generations and in their abilities, making the most of talents and promoting the digital culture, to encourage the development of the area.