The Value of Statistics in Being Able to Compete

by Lucio Moriggi, FEDERTEC Vice President

Mechatronics represents a key sector for industry in Italy: its revenues are around €40bn with exports making up over two thirds of this. FEDERTEC is proud to count 30% of this total coming from its member companies. This was the view of Fausto Villa, FEDERTEC president, who in a past editorial underlined the commitment in “supporting promotion of our sectors through the communication of the actual needs of our supply chain”.
Exactly as FEDERTEC represents the supply chain for the Italian industry of components and mechatronics technologies for fluid power, power transmission and control and intelligent automation of industrial products and processes, s Fausto Carboni, FEDERTEC Vice President, confirmed – it is fundamental to know demand levels to really understand the markets, both domestic and export related.
Our job is in supporting companies to tap into their market place and add all the ingredients to follow the right path for them, each company with its own distinct recipe. This is true both for large and small scale companies where resources available are often focused on priority operations. Even SMEs need to know their market reference points. This must be done, however, from a prerequisite that we can define as cultural: the decision to collaborate in data sharing concerning companies’ own markets, in a protected and anonymous way, is the best step toward shared knowledge growth as a communal asset and greatly aids in understanding the needs and opportunities the market offers.
The statistics commission, of which I am part, has exactly this task. Far from an easy job in the fluid power and power transmission fields due to their inherent sub sectors and various product macro categories. As a commission, our goal is to qualitatively improve our statistics and become a benchmark reference point. In order to do this, we need conviction in the collaboration of all associates.
For sure, statistics are not everything: as Charles Bukowski memorably underlined “I don’t trust statistics, because a man with his head in a hot oven and his feet in the freezer has a perfect overall temperature – statistically” or Trilussa with the chicken and the statistical average trick. However, I am convinced that in reality, when well handled, correct statistics can give useful information to understand the complex markets in which we operate today so much better.