Dario Spinola, what was the market like in Brazil 20 years ago?
20 years ago, the market was booming after a recession, and many international companies were investing in Brazil. My partner Paulo Lima and I believed that many companies needed to establish the right processes. The topic of Lean was also new. It was associated more with the application of Japanese principles and methods to production sites.
What about today?
There is still a lot of potential, for the most part in the automotive or machinery sector, which is promising for the years to come. Yet, the main issue will be: what can we do to efficiently grow? Currently, the agro and food industry are very strong, given that Brazil is a large country. Consumer goods in particular are being grown to keep up with the global demand. Brazil is a very rich country in terms of commodities. We have many mining reserves, especially for ores: steel and iron.
Where do you see the greatest potential for optimization in Brazil?
As Brazil is a very large country – we have land equivalent to ten times or more than Germany – the greatest potential can be found in transportation and logistics, i.e. on how products can be moved around. In many companies, logistics account for around 8 to 12 percent of the total cost of a product. Transport is an expensive waste.
Looking towards the future, what are your expectations for Brazil over the coming years?
As is the case everywhere in the world, companies in Brazil are pursuing digitalization. I expect greater adoption of collaborative tools, how we use data science, process mining, automation, mobile devices. As transformation consultants, we believe that it is important to create stability first, no matter what kind of process you are working with. Remove waste, standardize the process and then you can add digitalization to that.
DÁRIO SPINOLA
Managing Director
STAUFEN.Táktica
Further Content
20 Years of experience in Brazil
Our Brazilian subsidiary Staufen Taktica, nowadays Staufen Brazil, was founded 20 years ago. We spoke with Dario Spinola, Managing Director of Staufen Brazil about the Brazilian economy 20 years ago when he founded Staufen Taktica, how he sees the economy today and where the economy is heading.
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