March 27, 2026 16:54

The “bumblebee paradox” is the false but now famous idea that, according to aerodynamics, a bumblebee should not be able to fly. And yet it does.

Moretto, based in Massanzago near Padua in northeastern Italy and a manufacturer of auxiliary equipment for plastics processing, has applied that concept to manufacturing.
Its highly integrated, vertically structured production model, with 75% of components made in-house, including sheet metal parts, should not, by today’s most widely accepted manufacturing standards, be sustainable. And yet it works. So well, in fact, that the company has recently completed a new 6,000-square-metre production department to consolidate and expand output.

The press tour organised by Promaplast, the organisation behind the Plast trade fair in Milan, offered a close-up look at this industrial model, which is not, as one might assume, a legacy of the past, but a deliberate choice supported by continuous investment.

VERTICAL INTEGRATION. In Massanzago, vertical integration starts with sheet metal processing and extends to the injection moulding of selected components, all the way to the extrusion of plastic pipes on systems that are also used to develop new products, such as dryers and dosing units, and to train operators, both internal staff and customers.
The metal division in Massanzago has 12 laser systems, press brakes connected to the MES, and nine deep-drawing presses. It is a strategic choice before it is an organisational one.
Renato Moretto (pictured), the company’s founder and owner, makes no secret of it: “We are a slightly presumptuous company, in the sense that we are verticalised almost beyond belief. We do everything that others do not want to do or cannot do… or almost everything.”
The entrepreneur links this approach to two key factors: responsiveness to customer needs and quality control at every stage of the production process.
“The ‘buy, assemble and sell’ model has reached the end of the road, because it is no longer capable of guaranteeing the level of quality required in the upper segments of the market, where we can still remain competitive.”
Asked whether such an approach risks weighing on costs, Moretto rejects that view: “That is not true: it costs less, if you know how to do it. For example, with our volumes we can afford a latest-generation five-axis CNC machine, an investment that a subcontractor cannot always make. In one year alone, we invested 7.5 million euros just in machine tools.”

LESS DEPENDENCE ON SUPPLIERS AND THE SUPPLY CHAIN. This became clear during the plant visit. Moretto does not want to depend on suppliers for operations it considers crucial to the value embedded in its products.
The reason is not only industrial, but also commercial: in global markets, with increasingly demanding customers and ever tighter response times, losing control of the chain means weakening the company’s value proposition. “We want to keep know-how in-house,” the entrepreneur says.
The production chain starts with stainless steel sheet, moves through semi-finished components and reaches the assembled machine, all within an integrated and traceable ecosystem. Every stage is monitored by a Manufacturing Execution System (MES), which makes it possible to track where each component is, what production stage it has reached and which assembly it is intended for. That level of control is essential for managing a very broad machinery portfolio and meeting promised delivery times.

EVEN SCREWS AND PIPES ARE MADE IN-HOUSE. Particularly significant is the decision to produce in-house elements that elsewhere would be outsourced because they are not considered core components. This is the case with metering screws, which are central to system performance, as well as flexible hoses for material conveying. “The quality of the raw materials we use to produce the piping is not available on the market,” Moretto explains.
The same applies to the large automated powder-coating line, which can handle components up to six metres long, increasing production autonomy and customisation flexibility.

AUTOMATION IN LOGISTICS. Supporting this industrial architecture is a network of 32 automated warehouses, initially introduced for spare parts and later extended to production. Their effectiveness has been confirmed from a lean production perspective: faster retrieval of parts, shorter waiting times and greater control over material flow.
It may be less spectacular than the machine tools, but it is probably just as important in supporting in-house integration on an industrial scale.
Speed of response, after all, is one of the Veneto founder’s strongest arguments. “We do not depend on supplier lead times. If we are installing a line and a component is needed because of a variable that arises during the process, we can deliver it to the customer within half a day, custom-made and powder-coated. There is no need to wait three or four days.” The statement neatly sums up the competitive advantage Moretto attributes to its industrial organisation.

NEW DEPARTMENT. The press tour also served to showcase the new production spaces. In Massanzago, a new 6,000-square-metre department has been completed, doubling the area devoted to assembly and leading to a reorganisation of departments and logistics. This is not just about additional space, but about a radical redesign of the production layout.
Production will be moved into the new building, while the freed-up areas will be dedicated to research and development, engineering, prototyping, testing and quality, as well as special productions.
Pointing to the large area still to be fitted out, Moretto explains: “Here we will handle recurring batches, while in the other plant we will assemble special systems that require customised work. Part of the space that will be freed up will be turned into technical and demonstration areas dedicated to different application sectors, from packaging to blow moulding, from medical to cables.”

CONTROLLED INTERNATIONALISATION. Moretto’s vertical integration does not stop at the borders of Italy. Over the years, the company has built an industrial presence in Poland, developed, Renato Moretto explains, in response to a very specific challenge: welding and metal fabrication, activities that are becoming increasingly difficult to source on the market. “Welding in particular is a type of work that in Italy struggles to attract people willing to do it.”
After two years of scouting, Moretto built an 8,000-square-metre facility in Poland and trained around 100 employees. The site handles high volumes of metal fabrication in support of the work carried out in the Italian plants, which remain the core for higher value-added activities such as product intelligence and the company’s technological core, as well as assembly and precision metal fabrication. At the Polish site, welding is carried out using cobots.
It is therefore an international supply chain, but one still strongly centred on Massanzago as the hub of know-how.
Any future manufacturing expansion abroad — with Mexico and Morocco being monitored as possible options — is also viewed in logistical and market-presence terms, not as a relocation of the company’s brain. “Nothing is imminent; it will take a couple of years before anything concrete takes shape.”

What emerges from the visit to Massanzago is a business model that may not align with the sector’s prevailing standards, but is internally coherent. Moretto defends competitiveness and quality not by lightening manufacturing, but by reinforcing it.

In that sense, the Padua-area site is not merely a production plant: it is the concrete expression of a counter-current industrial strategy. And that is precisely the point. In a market where many buy almost everything from outside and assemble in-house, Moretto is moving in the opposite direction. And, at least from what can be seen in Massanzago, it is clear that Renato Moretto does not see this as manufacturing nostalgia, but as a condition for remaining competitive.

© Polimerica -  Reproduction prohibited, all rights reserved