GIOCHI PREZIOSI S.p.A. is an Italian Company with 200 employees and
it is involved in design, production and distribution of toys. The relevant
industrial sector is therefore classified, in accordance with an European
standard classification, as PRODCOM 3650 - Games and Toys. The company
has been active in this field since 1979.
Its products are: dolls, paper articles, electrical toys, instructive
toys, gadget and plushes. Giochi Preziosi markets its product mainly
in Italy. It enjoys a 20% of the total Italian toys market share and
a 10% of plushes sector. Its currently turnover has been (1999) 175
Meuro. All its existing products are designed utilising cloth, paper,
plastic and mould technology with some electrical parts. No experience
in electronics was inside the company before the present experiment,
with the only exception of very minor applications of PCBs, which were
acquired as product off the shelf.
The objective of the Application Experiment was the realisation of
a mixed ASIC based on a microcontroller architecture with a wide range
of applications. The first of them has been on the "Orso Ciro" Doll
as an improvement of the existing product in order to be able to face
the strong competition in this market sector, coming both from traditional
competitors and newcomers, like companies from Asian Countries. The
Doll equipped with a Mixed ASIC is designed with the objective to obtain
a higher interactivity with the player. In terms of cost/effectiveness
the new line of products will be able to increase the market penetration,
steady in the recent years and expected decreasing. The Mixed ASIC will
be applicable to some other existing products, even if with a modular
approach of increased complexity and functionality, depending on the
different use and application.
Other than increased functional capabilities of the product, the objective
of the AE is the increase of the product profit of about 20% and a long
term increase of the AE production of about 39%. This is obtained mainly
by containing as much as possible manufacturing costs, with a strong
increase of functionality.
This project has been developed with an effective cost of 90.9 KEuro
and an effective duration of 14 months.
The economic AE benefits are calculated in the period 2001-2004 on
the basis of the increased market penetration, due to the better performance
and market appeal of the new product. The next industrialisation phase
requires a further cost of 128.4 Keuro. The investment is expected to
be recovered within 15 months and the Return of Investment (ROI) is
estimated in 381%.
