Beyond the shadow of a doubt, quality is a crucial, strategic factor, today even more than in the past, to gain a competitive edge with customers and competitors. Rules, standards, improvement and optimisation have become the keywords to be truly competitive and stand out on the target market.

At first glance, quality is certainly associated with the product. The more a product is perceived as being of high quality, the greater is the customer satisfaction. But the concept is much broader and the product is just one aspect of this universe.

"We can think of Quality as being the eyes of a company", explained Fabio Cavani, Head of the PIUSI Quality Department.

"Quality invests inside and outside an organisation, spanning from the company system and production processes to when the product is marketed. All these aspects must dialogue and operate in synergy to be able to say that Quality has been achieved".

Q: How does the Quality Office work in PIUSI?

A: "First of all, I would like to clarify an important concept. Quality means production processes and systems for us, not just products. For a product to be high-quality, that is to meet the standards and levels we have set ourselves, we need production processes that are efficient and effective and a company management system that keeps everything in line with synergistic, high-performance procedures that always look to the future.

I like to say that we are champions of corporate improvement. We always strive to try to bring robust solutions, innovative suggestions, improve the way we work and spread Quality throughout the production chain".

Q: What does process quality mean? What exactly do you do?

A: "We need to be sure that new production processes, whether internal or external - a new supplier, for instance - can produce products continuously and repeatably in accordance with our specifications.

Internally, we support the Technical Department and Industrial Engineering to find the most optimised production solutions. Externally, we work with our suppliers to make sure they understand our needs and can manufacture accordingly.

It is a constructive approach. We meditate, dialogue, share... We work together to improve everyone involved as well as ourselves. It takes diplomacy supported by sound technical knowledge, of course. We cannot talk about process quality unless we have a clear understanding of production methods, materials and potential alternative solutions. It is a constant challenge in which we are called to examine new technologies and forces us to raise the bar more and more. Knowing that PIUSI is recognised worldwide for the quality of its products is satisfying".

Q: Am I right in thinking that the whole company invests in the Quality System?

A: "Certainly. Ours is a bit like a high-wire act. We see all the company's operations and processes from above and we strive to keep them balanced, correlated and intersected with each other suggesting ideas for improvement and innovation.

PIUSI is a dynamic and constantly growing company, so we have to ask ourselves today how we want to work tomorrow, finding new solutions to keep up with the times, to improve and contribute to the company's growth".

Q: How is the Quality Office organised?

A: "We are a rather large department, one of the biggest in the company after Sales and the Technical Office, actually. Ten people work in the PIUSI Quality Office. We are a very cohesive team and that is our strength.

We need three fundamental qualities: structured approach, to face every problem in an organised way, digging deep without ever taking anything for granted; technical knowledge on design and technological know-how levels to have a clear picture of what can be done and how far we can go; and a fair amount of diplomacy to be able to speak with all the players inside and outside the company, making them interact with each other. Consequently, we are organised on three levels: system, process and product. I manage all three. Three people who deal with supplier Quality.

They carry out periodic audits, manage supply problems, make sure that their products comply with our specifications and the required certifications.

Two people are in charge of internal process Quality, production, management issues and customer complaints. One person is in charge of metrology - I remind you that we have an in-house metrology laboratory - for managing instruments and developing measurement methods. Two people are in charge of product quality control.

They take care of receiving the material from suppliers and characterising new components. Finally, we have one technician in charge of examining and repairing customer returns".