Safety and experience are the two crucial factors.The idea of ​​a quarry-workshop to trainThe stone supply chain is the fourth that we deal with in the “Filiere e Territorio” project promoted by the Tyrrhenian Sea in collaboration with Confindustria Livorno Massa Carrara (the contents are taken from the Atlas of Professional Requirements of Irpet).The Tuscan marble supply chain is located between the provinces of Massa-Carrara and Lucca and represents the best known worldwide concentration of companies with this specialization.The activities can be reported in three main phases: the extraction of marble;industrial and artistic marble processing;the marketing of finished products, semi-finished products or simple blocks, with import-export activities worldwide.There are medium-large companies that generally oversee the extraction phase and can then also carry out various types of processing internally;companies specialized in the processing of marble, often small or artisan, who work on behalf of third parties and / or with their own final customers;chemical and mechanical industries specialized in products and technologies for the processing and extraction of stone materials.At the end of the supply chain we find activities concerning the use of processing scraps, which can be reused as powders in other sectors (pharmaceutical and chemical) or transformed (for example into granules such as the so-called agglomarmo).The processes of globalization and the economic crisis have favored high value-added processes placed on luxury markets and oriented towards exports, but also the sale of only raw material, which enjoys a position of income due to its image of international value. of white Carrara marble.The skills of the workforce represent an undoubted competitive advantage of the district.First of all, these are skills accumulated over the centuries and spread mainly through learning methods linked to experience in the field, the transfer of knowledge from older to younger workers and from one local company to another.The processes of globalization of the supply chain and technological progress have partially changed the framework of requests from customers.A general lowering of the demand for personnel can be observed in some stages of processing that have been automated, while the need for new skills has grown, outlining a moving picture in which the need for human capital remains central, but the need for human capital becomes fundamental. support of a more institutionalized and shared training activity among the companies in the supply chain, at an intersectoral level.The marble supply chain needs figures in the various stages described.For traditional ones, the most important aspect, along with safety, is experience.In many companies, training is done internally, even by hiring young untrained staff.For the figure of the quarryman it is considered necessary to support him in the field to learn the trade.The preparation of a "test quarry" / "laboratory quarry", shared between the companies concerned, could be a way to replace - in part - the internal training carried out by individual companies.Compared to the past, the demand for machine tool operators and assemblers has grown, but their characteristic must be that of combining mechanical, electronic and IT skills.These figures serve both mechanical companies and companies that use machinery.In the various stages of processing, craftsman-like skills are also required, typical of the finisher, which were transmitted in the past decades through the apprenticeship in the workshop.To these must be added today the knowledge of 3D design software (technical designer) and the use of robots (programmers), which replace human activity in some phases.Downstream of the supply chain, experts in the laying of marble are then required, therefore with typical skills of the construction sector but specialized in the knowledge of stone materials.On the marketing and marketing side, companies are increasingly equipping themselves with specialized figures in customer promotion and management, experts in web marketing, web design and social networks, not very widespread in the area.Higher profiles are then identified, typical of industrial research, capable of introducing elements of innovation in the use of materials, in eco-design, in the recovery of waste materials.SAE Group (SAPERE AUDE EDITORI) SpA, Viale Vittorio Alfieri n.9 - 57124 Livorno - PI 01954630495The rights of the images and texts are reserved.Their reproduction by any means and total or partial adaptation is expressly prohibited.