CRP Technology explains its recent - and future - growth

Franco Cevolini: "In the Mechanical department, lots of results came from the changes we made in May 2005, when we merged the two production facilities in the actual building, thus allowing us to optimise the employees' productivity. Moreover, large investments have been made in new machinery and new working staff.

Obviously, I am not talking about standard machinery, but high-tech machinery to manufacture metal matrix uprights, for instance, which is a core business of the mechanical sector.

On the other side, for the rapid prototyping department, there has been a real boom in the production on our Windform XT. After an aggressive marketing campaign, the demands have increased and we have reached an organised and constant production throughout the year.

CRP is more and more a point of reference in the motorsport and high-tech sectors, while our Windform XT is mainly exploited for aerodynamic and rapid manufacturing applications.

Livia Cevolini: "From 2005 onwards, the turnover of the mechanical department increased 60 per cent, while the RP department increased 75 per cent. The increase in productivity has been 30 per cent: 17 per cent due to the investments in production machinery and 10-15 per cent due to the investment in R&D. The staffing has increased 20 per cent and this allowed us to apply a functional organisation chart to a modern company, ready for the innovation".

Which market increased its interest in CRP's production?

Franco: "The production has increased in motorsport, our main target, both in the mechanical and in the rapid prototyping department, and there is a new growing interest in the aeronautical market. Of course, we always are focused on high-tech sectors, where technology, performance, quality and extremely fast execution are required.

Referring to mechanical productivity, the focus of the customer is on the suspension corner, that means the 'wheel group': the uprights, the wishbones, the pushrods, the rocker arms, the preload arms, the torsion and reaction springs, and so on. The interest in gearbox cases is growing too. In the rapid prototyping dept, there were many requests for aerodynamics and for rapid manufacturing (functional final products), thanks to Windform XT: customers are looking for parts made within a very short time and truly working. For example, instead of the traditional aluminium casting, some parts are directly realised in Windform XT, then the connection points and the bearings' housings are CNC machined."

The growth in 2006 has led to a brand new organisation within the company's structure. What is the aim of this?

Franco: "What we want to obtain is a direct interaction between the technicians, the administration employees and so on, adopting a better pre- and after-sales service in order to speed up the whole production process.

The new customer care service will allow CRP to analyse every client's request, which sometimes are everything but clear, to forward them to the right department that will directly contact the client's technicians to define the details. Understanding the needs of the client is fundamental, in order to waste as little time as possible later on. The aim is therefore to solve the possible problems in order to continue to improve the offered service."

Livia: "The new customer care service will have lots of pluses, as well as the new press office. This was created to allow the media to get in contact with a specialised office, kept informed 100 per cent about all the activities, and that knows exactly what can be officially released or not. It is made of two main entities: an agency, that follows the commercial negotiations, and an internal press office, dedicated to the interaction with the press staff and responsible of the released texts for press, internet and conferences. Technically, we do trust the new pre- and post-sales services for our best customers, that will have the chance to stay in direct contact with the time-and-methods office and the CAD-CAM technical office. We also have just created a specific office to help our suppliers, and always keep an eye on the whole supply chain. It will be useful also to intensify the research of new suppliers in the world."

How will the pre- and post-sales service be run?

Franco: "The new pre-sales service has been created to improve the activities of the time-and-methods office, in order to make negotiations with the client faster, mainly for the mechanical department, as rapid prototyping is already fast by itself. Providing a quotation in a short time is not always easy to do: our aim is to increase the support to the production and the commercial office, allowing the realisation of the quotation in a really short time.

The post-sales service is connected to the quality department, which directly speaks with the client when there are technical problems or modifications to be done."

Livia: "This new service will be very useful for all our best clients for sure, when some analysis is needed in case of problems or oversights in the project, or for the control and certification of the materials supplied by our clients".

CRP's next goal is to co-operate also in other race series. Which one would you be interested in and how do you plan to do it?

Franco: "If 'other series' means everything but Formula 1, we already have excellent partnerships in Rally Raid, WRC (World Rally Championship), MotoGP and American Le Mans Series. The aim is obviously to enforce these sectors but also to begin new collaborations, for example in FIA GT and WTCC. We will try to work a lot on the technical office, increasing the engineering potentiality and trying to supply CRP 'custom' products; quality and performance will be the key words, as always. This way, CRP would become a point of reference for those looking for lightness and performance."

Livia: "On the other side, the CRP Racing company's goal will be to supply a complete package to the client: from engineering, to the corner being assembled on the racing car or bike. CRP Racing is a brand new company, founded few weeks ago, whose goal is to work on special projects: this year it will follow also some national motorbike champs, but we have great plans for its future. "

What other ideas do you have for next season?

Franco: "CRP's R&D never stops and always tries to develop innovative materials and transforming technologies. We cannot reveal secrets, but there will be news in this direction very soon, both for RP technology and mechanics".