RIVIT

The Company
Rivit is the leading Italian company in the production and supply of sheet metal fastening products. Active since 1973, Rivit serves the industrial and construction sectors with rivets and tools for their installation, along with a range of small machines for sheet metal processing. The company is headquartered in the province of Bologna and includes a branch in Latina and a production unit in Varese, complemented by international offices in India and Morocco.

The Challenge
Originally founded as an artisan enterprise, Rivit is now regarded as a benchmark in both national and international markets, with multiple distribution partners reaching over 60 countries worldwide. The company’s rapid growth and the constantly evolving sector made it urgent to undergo a digital transformation process aimed at streamlining operations and optimizing efficiency through a technological renewal path designed to integrate solutions that support productivity and operations.

This new phase began with the adoption of a multilingual ERP system to manage business operations on a global scale. This initiative also included the development of a new corporate portal with both B2B and B2C focus, and the implementation of IP network-based collaboration solutions to achieve maximum system integration.

A true qualitative leap culminated in the construction of an 18,000 m² fully automated warehouse, capable of handling over 45,000 items and 100,000 SKUs for picking operations, using two stacker cranes and 24,000 trays. This complex system—featuring robotics—leverages all the benefits of the Industry 4.0 approach, enabling the company to fulfill the highest number of orders in the shortest time possible.

The Solution
To support this transformation and digitization journey, Rivit partnered with VEM Sistemi to enhance its Data Center infrastructure, aiming to create a reliable and secure environment for managing the information used by all production departments.

“We needed to phase out our existing servers and acquire a more high-performing system to better support operations,” states Manuele Avanzolini, CEO of Rivit. During this delicate phase, Rivit relied on VEM Sistemi’s consultancy to identify the most suitable technology for its reliability needs, keeping in mind the goal of making a long-term investment in a scalable solution.

Rivit implemented an infrastructure composed of two VMWare-based hosts hosting fully virtualized servers, along with two redundant NetApp storage devices. Thanks to a robust backup architecture, these devices ensure the availability of all company data.

“Data availability is fundamental for our business,” adds Avanzolini. “Thanks to VEM Sistemi, we have created a backup management system that is more secure and faster than our previous solution.” Moreover, “The incremental backup process has drastically reduced the time required for data operations.” The storage component is based on a hybrid system combining solid-state drives and Storage-as-a-Service, allowing Rivit to rapidly access all critical operational information.

The Results
Beyond more effective data accessibility, the main immediate benefits include enhanced security levels, particularly in terms of GDPR compliance, and improved performance boosting productivity. Additionally, energy savings were achieved thanks to the new virtualized infrastructure. “We consolidated the number of physical machines per rack, decommissioned unused devices, and simultaneously increased memory capacity.”

But that’s not all. The decision to embrace change and rely on a technology partner like VEM Sistemi was also driven by the need for long-term scalable solutions. Rivit has many ambitious innovation projects in the pipeline, and the infrastructure designed with VEM Sistemi’s help will once again play a crucial role.

Rivit’s upcoming challenge will focus on the Internet of Things, enhancing the traceability of products and tools manufactured at its facilities. The amount of data to be managed will grow—but the infrastructure is already prepared to meet these new objectives.

“By leveraging the intelligence of our production systems and the data transmission network based on sensors and interconnected systems, we will launch a process control project,” concludes Avanzolini. “We already have a traceability system that identifies the lifecycle of each product we manufacture. Soon, by collecting information from machines during production and sending it to the Data Center, we will have access to valuable insights for maintaining our production systems and their components, enabling us to provide the company with information that helps improve processes.”