A coffee with... Luciano Costa, Operational Logistics Director at Horse Aveiro

Empack e Logistics & Automation Porto: Tell us about yourself and your work. What’s your day-to-day life like at Horse Aveiro? What are your duties?

Luciano Costa: Hello, I’m Luciano Costa, married with 2 children. I started my adventure in the automotive world in 2005 and throughout these 19 years my area of work has always been logistics/supply chain. After various experiences abroad in both operational logistics and supply chain, I am now working as Operational Logistics Director at the Horse Aveiro unit (formerly Renault Cacia). Day-to-day work involves ensuring the smooth planning of production for the entire plant, from managing our customers’ orders to managing suppliers and associated transport, not forgetting continuous improvement and strategic plans for the future of our unit (new business).

Empack e Logistics & Automation Porto: Considering your professional career in the world of logistics, what do you think were the biggest challenges you faced and what projects do you remember or would you highlight in your professional career?

Luciano Costa: The challenges of a logistics chain are constant and can be generated by multiple factors. However, on a personal level, I would highlight the creation of a logistics platform that began to supply all the factories in South America with material that was imported from all over the world. On a general level, I’d start with the economic crisis of 2009, which brought uncertainty about business continuity, COVID, which forced us to develop new ways of working and new forms of transport, and in our case in particular, the Aveiro plant was the first of all the Renault group’s plants to resume operations (a major challenge that was met with excellence), and finally the latest events since the Russia/Ukraine conflict and the conflict in the Red Sea, all of which have forced us to be increasingly flexible and to anticipate all possible variations in transport flows.

Empack e Logistics & Automation Porto: In terms of sustainability, what are Horse Aveiro’s environmental commitments and how do they affect the logistics department, and how do you work to reduce your footprint on the planet?

Luciano Costa: At Horse Aveiro we work hard to achieve our environmental goals and to this end we have installed what is still the largest private photovoltaic park for internal consumption, which even so only accounts for 13 per cent of our energy consumption. We have already validated a second stage that will allow us to reach 30% of our consumption. We also try to associate ourselves with CO2 reduction initiatives such as using less polluting transport, recycling and even analysing the carbon footprint of each event we hold in the company.

Empack e Logistics & Automation Porto: Is there anything we’ve left out that you find interesting in the professional field of the logistics sector? For example, what trends you see in the sector, what you think about a hot topic, a project you’re working on or an issue you’d like to contribute to.

Luciano Costa: I think it’s important to address the issue of AI (artificial intelligence) and what this technology can bring to the world of logistics and supply chain. The challenge at the moment is to understand how to apply AI concepts to existing systems. As in other sectors, the importance of keeping up with new management and decision-making concepts is mandatory, indispensable, but without ever forgetting the human side of our organisations.