We asked to Mr. Andrea Righetto, born in 1979, working in MCS since 1999 a few questions. In addition to being our electronic designer, he is responsible for machinery maintenance. Thanks to his experience and expertise, over time he has become a point of reference for his colleagues.
Good morning, Andrea, can you briefly tell us something about yourself? How long have you been working at MCS? What’s your current job about?
I joined the company in 1999 as Quality Manager. The first result I obtained was to take a path to become an internal evaluator and lead MCS to be certified according to the ISO 9001 standard.
Subsequently, for several years I played the role of Quality Manager supporting the company management. I have always carried out the Research & Development sector: I have followed most of the innovations that have gradually been introduced in MCS.
Currently I am the in charge of electronic design, from both hardware and software point of view. In the last period, partly due to the situation we are going through, I have returned to following more of the production side, in particular some young people to help them grow and become independent as soon as possible.
It is said that you are a curious person, never tired of learning and – let’s put it this way – with a passion for technology…
I actually have many interests. I am an engineer by training, but having reached 80% of my electronic engineering course, I gave up because I realized that I had entered a cultured environment, but one that did not deviate from what the books said: an aspect that I did not agree with.
I like the electronics sector, and technology in general: I think that on the one hand it requires a lot of energy to stay up to date, on the other it gives you a lot of energy and motivation because you constantly have the opportunity to tackle something new.
What are the most critical aspects in the field of electronic design of membrane switches or human-machine interfaces?
In my opinion, the biggest problem is understanding what the customer wants and making him aware of what he actually wants. The customer wants many things, but then it is necessary to deal with technical, functional aspects, etc. In the end it is necessary to arrive at an effective compromise, because making a hardware or software do more than what it was born for always leads to problems.
Therefore, as I understand, the critical aspects are not the technical ones, which can still be tackled and overcome methodically, but the commercial ones in the sense of understanding what customers want.
MCS is also a company that does not produce the finished product, so it doesn’t have the problem of analyzing every possible facet on a technical level. We realize only a part, on which we can focus completely.
How important is creativity in electronic design?
To me, electronic design is like math, it’s not an opinion. Creativity is applied not so much to the final result, which in a certain sense is given, but to how you arrive at the result, how you manage to get around a possible obstacle. Creativity therefore lies in how you solve problems.
I imagine that the computer is the main work tool for you too…
In my work I always start from an initial phase on paper, to identify the macro-areas that need to be discussed with the customer and which I then have to explore in depth at the schema level for the electronic part. Then obviously everything ends up inside a computer with all the support programs.
Which project gave you the most satisfaction?
I’d say the one about a corporate fleet tracking system. We can call it a “historical” work: the project dates back to 2002, but it continues to work perfectly with the hardware we studied then.
Over time, the client has looked for alternatives or improvements to other suppliers, but in the end, he has always returned to us. In some respects, this hardware is “old”, but it still performs better than other newer or modern solutions.
Based on your experience, what are the winning characteristics of MCS?
The fact we deal with challenges we face every day without fear: the more interesting the challenge, the greater the desire to face it.
MCS is a nice environment for people who feel motivated. Anyone who wants to grow and progress will find all the opportunities in MCS.
The company also has a more horizontal than vertical structure: it is a very flattened pyramid. It is a structure that allows us to be more agile and faster in responding to customer requests.
Interview by – MCS Marketing Department