Nowadays, the implementation of digital solutions has become a crucial requirement in industries, especially the shoe industry, to remain competitive and to guarantee better delivery times, quality and prices.
Fratelli Borgioli is an Italian company that has been producing luxury men’s shoes for over seventy years. It was founded in 1946 in a small workshop located in the Florentine countryside, precisely in La Stella di Vinci, a region known for its rich tradition of art and craftsmanship.
Fratelli Borgioli chose to collaborate with Gea Soft, a reliable technological partner with whom they have managed to optimise many aspects of the company, including warehouse management, modelling, quality control and material traceability, leading to greater efficiency and control.
Discover our case study on F.lli Borgioli
We interviewed Giacomo Fioravanti, owner of Fratelli Borgioli, who told us about the advantages of introducing Gea Soft’s software solutions in the company.
Tell us about F.lli Borgioli. How was it born, how did it grow, what is its expertise?
‘The Fratelli Borgioli shoe factory was born in 1946, founded by two brothers: Renè, my grandfather, and Valerio, his brother. Shoes in a way had saved them both during the war. My grandfather used to cut leather from train bellows at night and use it to make shoes and for repairs. Valerio had stayed at home and he too made do with repairing shoes. When the war ended, they got together and decided to start this project together. The first ‘little room’, used as a workshop, and the old factory are still there and can be visited, Casa Borgioli; it has been converted into a place of memory, to keep the history of the company alive, but also to enhance the territory.
Then, in the 1950s and 1960s, the company began to expand, and in the 1980s the second generation, my mother and her cousin, entered. They started to go outside the domestic market, to do the first trade fairs, to go to Hong Kong, to the United States. In those years, the first collaborations with brands began. Initially, the designer would come to the company, we would eat something and create the collection together. With Manolo Blahnik, for example, the work remained like that, with the utmost trust.’
When did you realise you had to take a further step of digitisation?
‘I would say after 2018. We moved to new premises and also changed our production concept. We coped best with this change thanks to Gea Soft’s tools, which enabled us to manage processes in a more structured way. Today, 85% of our production is dedicated to Brands. This situation has brought new requirements, because dealing with customers of this calibre means having to be impeccable. A delivery delay, a quality problem that used to be manageable, now becomes unmanageable, and it becomes mandatory to have the right tools to make sure it doesn’t happen. With the move we have abandoned the manoeuvre and implemented the Lean method of continuous improvement and flexibility. With Lean Production we put work into production according to the delivery date that the customer requires, and from there we plan backwards. That way we only put in the work that is needed, so that we don’t have large piles of semi-finished goods. We do the daily scheduling of what goes into production and all the reminders to the various workers phase by phase are done according to the requested delivery date. We manage all these optimisations thanks to Gea Soft’s tools.’
How have the changes regarding the organisation of production and the introduction of new digital tools been received?
‘Certainly the changes from the production point of view were not easy, because we changed the way everyone was used to working. It is important to introduce the digital tools gradually, doing the necessary training. But the staff adapted well, mainly because they themselves realised that they needed a tool to help them. Having to extend quality control to 100 per cent of production, having customised packaging for each customer, managing shipments and the warehouse, everything became more complex. So the advent of digital in these cases was welcomed with relief, not as an enemy.’
You have been in business for almost 80 years. What role does collaboration with a reliable and proactive technology partner play in the health and longevity of a business?
‘It certainly plays an important role. Let’s take our management software, Gea Fashion by Gea Soft: for me the fundamental characteristic it must have, beyond ease of use, must be robustness and reliability. Because today, if the management software didn’t work, we would be stuck. It would not be possible to ship, to register incoming raw materials and semi-finished goods, to make production advances. It would be like shutting down the company.
Assistance is also fundamental, because if a problem occurs there must be someone ready to solve it. Gea Soft has always been effective in this, because assistance is dedicated, so we have a reference operator who knows our history and the tools we use, and it is the same person who comes to do the release, the check, the updates; there is a relationship of total trust. The consulting aspect is also very important. At Gea Soft I have my trusted contact person, who over the years has guided me in choosing the most suitable solutions for my reality.’
How have our products changed your business management and optimised processes?
‘They have helped us solve complex problems on several fronts. For example, working with Manolo Blahnik and other big luxury brands, it became essential to always have a clear idea of the company’s general progress, to be able to update customers on the status of orders, to be able to define precise delivery dates, etc. There has been an optimisation of timescales; today, times are very tight and we need a tool that helps us to keep track of all the stages, from the procurement of materials to the start of production and shipment, to make sure we meet delivery dates. We were able to extend quality control to 100% of production and make it more objective and efficient, thanks to Gea Quality. We have digitised the warehouse, which is now managed with Gea WMS. Thanks to Gea style we quickly make prices and update them as raw material costs change, keeping track of even the smallest components and managing fluctuations in raw material prices, which have become extremely frequent. In general, we have greater organisation and usability of vital information within the company.’
We would like to thank Giacomo Fioravanti for his time and the interesting perspective he provided!