Alcantara: innovation in logistics too
Alcantara needed to implement a WMS system to manage the logistics flows to and from production at its Nera Montoro site, as well as flows to a new external warehouse.
A symbol of Italian excellence born from a technology that is unique in the world
ALCANTARA S.p.A. is one of the most prestigious examples of Italian manufacturing excellence. Founded in 1972 as a joint venture between the ENI Group and Japan’s Toray Industries Inc., the company is the world’s sole producer of Alcantara® material, the result of a unique, proprietary technology that is unrivaled and protected by numerous patents.
Headquartered in Milan and with a 586,180-square-meter production facility in Nera Montoro (Terni), in the heart of Umbria, Alcantara has successfully transformed a Japanese patent into a symbol of Italian excellence, combining technological know-how, innovation, and “Made in Italy” quality.
Sustainability is an integral part of the company’s philosophy: Alcantara was the first Italian company to obtain Carbon Neutral certification, in 2009. The company has also received a Verification Opinion from TÜV SÜD Italia in accordance with ISO 14068-1, the new international standard that defines the requirements, principles, and criteria for demonstrating the carbon neutrality of organizations and products.
Today, Alcantara is the go-to partner for the most prestigious brands in the automotive, fashion, interior design, and consumer electronics sectors, as well as for numerous other high-end applications.
Italy's first
carbon-neutral company
586,180 square meters
of production facilities
1972
year of foundation
Customer requirements
Warehouse Digitization
Alcantara needed to implement a WMS system to manage logistics flows to and from production at the Nera Montoro site, as well as flows to a new off-site warehouse.
This need arose from a lack of visibility into available inventory and a logistics management approach that limited process control and slowed down daily operations.
Proposed solution
On.Plant: A WMS Designed for Production
The implementation of On.Plant/WMS has provided Alcantara with greater visibility into inventory and complete process traceability, while also making picking and storage more efficient—operations that were previously slowed down by a lack of real-time visibility into available storage locations and the location of items.
The main features implemented include:
- Goods receipt, with structured management of incoming flows
- Allocation of goods within the warehouse
- Guided shipments via picking tasks
The system also manages tax warehouses and the supply of raw materials to production, ensuring continuity between logistics and production lines.
Benefits achieved
A Warehouse Transformed into a Business Process
The internalization of the warehouse process through the WMS has enabled Alcantara to achieve a 15% increase in daily operations, delivering tangible benefits on multiple levels:
- Complete digitization of inbound and outbound processes
- Greater efficiency in inbound flows, thanks to the integration of warehouses into the WMS platform
- Reduction in logistics costs through the optimization of material handling
- Reduction in picking and shipping errors
- Increased operator productivity, supported by the FIFO principle
- Greater inventory accuracy, with real-time visibility of lots, locations, and expiration dates
- Complete traceability of every movement, from receipt to shipment
- Optimization of warehouse space
- Paperless management, eliminating reliance on paper
Thanks to On.Plant/WMS, Alcantara’s warehouse operates as a true business process: every stage—goods receipt, picking, re-stocking, and shipping—is guided by operational rules encoded in the system, reducing reliance on individual operators.
Furthermore, real-time visibility into inventory levels, lots, expiration dates, and locations—along with complete traceability of movements—now enables Alcantara to make decisions even more quickly and with greater confidence, thanks to data that is always up-to-date and reliable.
