What technological evolution has Asturmadi Doors undergone in the recent years?
It is a company that is already quite automatised in terms of production lines. We have been using support robots both in the assembly process and in the painting and packaging processes for years now. They help us to reach optimal production ratios. To this we must add the main production line, starting from specific steel sheet formats for our standard doors, and equipped with a warehouse and shear to make the process as flexible as possible.
We must highlight the implementation of customized computer programs that help set up our orders, generate production orders and make previsions for purchases, so that we can serve our customers in the best way.
What is your most important production line?
Without a doubt it is punching + panelling + profiling. All our doors go through it and it allows us to manufacture both standard and custom doors with more than acceptable line changing time.
How is production scheduling done?
We review all new customer orders weekly and then we plan the deadlines in detail. We take into account the capacity available to our factory in each case.
In addition, a daily monitoring of the portfolio to try to meet the committed dates and anticipate possible unforeseen events that may appear.
What challenges did you face due to COVID-19?
The truth is that it has been an important challenge but we are finally starting to leave it behind slowly but surely.
We have all had to make an effort and change our way of doing things. The health of our workers and their families is the most important thing.
We followed all the sanitary recommendations from the beginning and it has given us good results.
From the point of view of purchasing for production, how does the increase in the price of raw materials affect your industry?
What is happening globally both with the prices of materials and their delivery terms is making things difficult for manufacturing companies. It causes an increase in our delivery terms and costs and can lead to a lack of supply. No one wants that.
Hopefully it will get solved soon. Otherwise, a health crisis that affected trade, hostelry and tourism in general at an economic level could turn into a crisis that affects the rest of the sectors with the damages that this would entail.
Asturmadi Doors manufactures fire doors. What kind of parts do you use? What technical difficulties do you encounter?
We manufacture fire-rated and multipurpose doors of galvanized steel and we paint them in our own warehouse. They are doors with different internal insulation depending on the needs and the certification that our clients request.
The biggest challenge we face is continually renewing our fire tests that we need in order to sell our doors, which takes a great effort both financial and staff-wise.
What kind of tasks do you prefer to outsource?
Most of our processes are performed at home, here at our factory.
Normally we outsource the manufacture of small metal and plastic elements to workshops in our local area that have their own moulds, matrix and dies.
Last but not least, are you planning on any short/medium term investment in new equipment or a new project that may require new machines?
Asturmadi is an investing company by DNA. There are always future plans for investments. Luckily, we continue working at a good pace and we can at least look for possibilities for improvement.
We are currently studying the possibility of changing the powder painting centre, a new frame profiling line, and an extraction and filtering centre to improve the environment in specific areas, among others.
