Fincantieri Promotes its 'Shipyard of the Future'

Aiming to show the excellence of Italian shipbuilding, while describing the transformations taking place within and the technological evolution, too, Fincantieri launched "Open shipyards, view on the future", a roadshow that opens the doors of its construction sites to institutions. 

The initiative, which is in the beginning stage, saw the participation and visit of the plant by the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi, and will continue into 2025 with events at other sites in Italy.

The event was introduced by the greeting of the President of Fincantieri Biagio Mazzotta. This was then followed by speeches by the CEO and General Director of Fincantieri Pierroberto Folgiero, by the Director of the plant Cristiano Bazzara, who guided the guests through the technological transformations of the shipyard with particular attention to safety, by the Director of Human Resources and Real Estate of Fincantieri Luciano Sale, who described the “Masters of the Sea” project, which led to the hiring of specialized workers, and the initiatives aimed at hiring foreign workers, welfare, diversity, equity & inclusion and Enrico Pirastru, Security Manager Fincantieri, which illustrated the Integrity Due Diligence activities aimed at protecting the entire production chain.

Among the national and local authorities also present were the Minister for Relations with Parliament, Luca Ciriani, and the President of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Regional Council, Mauro Bordin.

Image courtesy Fincantieri

A central portion of the day were the fundamental guidelines of Fincantieri's commitment towards the shipyard of the future. 

The first concerns investment in human capital through the "Maestri del Mare" program which offers paid training courses that combine theory, laboratory and experiential activities. The program, which has already led to the hiring of 90 resources, of which 44 at the Monfalcone construction site, provides for the hiring of a further 110 people between the end of the year and the beginning of 2025.

At the same time, also through the "Mattei Plan", Fincantieri, to make up for the lack of qualified manpower, has developed, and has already partly activated, recruiting projects for non-EU personnel with professional training and civic-linguistic education courses in the countries of origin. In this context, after the success of the initiative launched with Ghana, Fincantieri is working on a similar project with Tunisia.

Another point of focus was the technological innovation on construction sites -- an "intelligent industrialization" program that combines automation, robotics and artificial intelligence. A path that goes beyond the traditional paradigm of man-machine replacement to create, instead, a new 4.0 work model, where technology automates the most demanding activities, allowing people to grow towards more qualified roles, training the "workforce of the future".

The third point of focus places people, their safety and well-being at the centre. The Group has implemented a structured plan based on sensitivity, monitoring and continuous improvement, supported by ISO45001, ISO14001 and ISO50001 certifications in all Italian shipyards. The innovative approach to safety is based on the active involvement of employees and suppliers, through concrete initiatives such as periodic meetings with contracting companies, training, development of a dedicated portal and introduction of cutting-edge technologies.