Pininfarina
INDUSTRIE PININFARINA: THE NEW CUSTOMER DECISION
The 25th of April is a national holiday in Italy, but it was not for Industrie Pininfarina (Pininfarina) top management in 1996. A meeting between Pininfarina and high level Mitsubishi executives lasted the entire day. The following day, a Friday, Renato Bertrandi, manager of operations at Pininfarina, sat in his office at the Pininfarina plant at Grugliasco, in the Piedmont region of Italy. In a rare quiet moment, he reflected on the challenges that lay ahead for the manufacturing operations. On Monday, he would recommend whether Pininfarina should accept European manufacturing responsibility for a new vehicle, the Mitsubishi Pajero. The vehicle presented both a major opportunity and a significant commitment, which would impact Pininfarina's fortunes through the year 2004 and beyond and it would require major changes in manufacturing. The contract would virtually double Pininfarina's output. Once again, Bertrandi thought through the company's options and tried to evaluate the near term benefits and challenges to manufacturing as well as the longer term consequences. He thought with satisfaction about the many achievements in manufacturing since the 1980s. An active triathlete, he wondered where the next phase of the competitive race in the changing global automotive industry would leave the company.
PININFARINA BACKGROUND
In 1904, at the age of eleven, Battista "Pinin" Farina began work in his brother's coach-making business -which also specialized in making seats for racecars. After long experience in the emerging and rapidly expanding Turin automobile industry, he founded his own company in 1930. Pinin specialized in the design and production of custom and small series automobiles. While he expected to build relatively few "special" cars and was rooted in a tradition of highly skilled craftworkers, he was much impressed with the Ford system, which he had seen on a plant tour in the United States in 1920.
The 25th of April is a national holiday in Italy, but it was not for Industrie Pininfarina (Pininfarina) top management in 1996. A meeting between Pininfarina and high level Mitsubishi executives lasted the entire day. The following day, a Friday, Renato Bertrandi, manager of operations at Pininfarina, sat in his office at the Pininfarina plant at Grugliasco, in the Piedmont region of Italy. In a rare quiet moment, he reflected on the challenges that lay ahead for the manufacturing operations. On Monday, he would recommend whether Pininfarina should accept European manufacturing responsibility for a new vehicle, the Mitsubishi Pajero. The vehicle presented both a major opportunity and a significant commitment, which would impact Pininfarina's fortunes through the year 2004 and beyond and it would require major changes in manufacturing. The contract would virtually double Pininfarina's output. Once again, Bertrandi thought through the company's options and tried to evaluate the near term benefits and challenges to manufacturing as well as the longer term consequences. He thought with satisfaction about the many achievements in manufacturing since the 1980s. An active triathlete, he wondered where the next phase of the competitive race in the changing global automotive industry would leave the company.
PININFARINA BACKGROUND
In 1904, at the age of eleven, Battista "Pinin" Farina began work in his brother's coach-making business -which also specialized in making seats for racecars. After long experience in the emerging and rapidly expanding Turin automobile industry, he founded his own company in 1930. Pinin specialized in the design and production of custom and small series automobiles. While he expected to build relatively few "special" cars and was rooted in a tradition of highly skilled craftworkers, he was much impressed with the Ford system, which he had seen on a plant tour in the United States in 1920.