The Quality System as a lever for the development of an efficient company management structure oriented towards innovation

While the three-year period 2015-2018 witnessed the formal aggregation of the three manufacturing companies BBV Tech S.r.l. (Alflex), Steelflex S.r.l. and Inoflex S.r.l. into the BBV Inoflex Group, between 2018 and 2020, the foundations for the transformation of the Group into a modern industrial structure aimed at consolidating its identity in the context of global markets were firmly re- allied.

BBV Inoflex Group has collected the precious inheritance of a history of engineering design and production born in Milan in 1965.

The generational changeover has not only involved the top positions, but has deeply involved the whole company structure, both in terms of human resources and of technologies included in the production lines.

Since the start of the aggregation and restructuring project (in 2015), an organisational and governance structure typical of a medium-large company with a strong vocation for innovation and internationalization has been adopted.

There are two key elements that have been (and still are) the guiding principle of the path undertaken.

On the one hand, the development of thinking, which requires continuous training at all levels, and the constant search for a correct and respectful dialogue with all stakeholders. Employees, starting with middle management, not only receive purely technical training, but are constantly encouraged to develop and consciously manage a system of relationships (eso and endo corporate) in which each person plays a precise role, like the knots in a network.

The second lever is the Quality System, which is based on the ISO 9001 standard: it pervades the entire company complex and continues to develop specific verticals in line with the strategic vision of growth and consolidation of the Group’s industrial identity. In this context, certification of welding processes.

In this context, ISO 3834-2 certification of welding processes has been acquired, which supports production in accordance with ASME Stamp U, U2 standards and the PED Directive 2014/68/EU Mod. H.

The certification structure is combined with design and construction activities in accordance with EJMA X EDITION, ASME VIII Div.1 & Div.2 2017, EN13445-3, EN14917 standards.

If, on the one hand, the system of vertical certifications (process or product) is constantly enhanced, at the same time, by enhancing the value of ISO 9001:2015 (which has introduced an approach that is no longer prescriptive, but performance-based), the constant improvement of competitiveness factors is pursued, managing the wide discretion that the standard (in the new version) leaves to the company to choose the concrete ways to implement it.

In this way, it was natural to include in the company, in a structural form, the continuous analysis of the organisational structure, the evaluation of human resources in relation to the context, their support to guide their professional growth and, likewise, the evaluation of factors external to the company (i.e. the political, economic, cultural, social, legal and technological contexts).

In the first phase of the restructuring of the companies, which ended with the 2020 financial year, greater attention was paid (also from a training point of view) to economic-business issues and the legal area, which represent the pillars of knowledge from which any path to growth must be undertaken. In terms of business economics, tools (related to specific training) have been introduced to detect, measure and critically analyse business economic data. A better self-knowledge enables a clearer awareness of one’s actual market positioning.

The legal dimension pervades every thought and action of even the simplest social aggregate. Whenever order is to be introduced, whatever form of (corporate) governance is to be adopted, the first supporting element is always the law. All companies must operate within a complex regulatory framework, partly from public and partly from private sources; the Quality System itself is based on a system of codified standards. Acquiring, at all company levels, adequate awareness of this situation and learning the tools useful to interact correctly and profitably with social actors is an important competitive lever.

The actions taken, summarised here, have led to a greater awareness of the Group’s strengths and weaknesses with respect to market dynamics and the needs and expectations of those with whom it interacts.

This has made it possible to strengthen and rationalise the ability to choose and plan the deployment of new technologies and the direction in which technical capabilities should evolve.

The objectives are represented by the incessant search, on the one hand, for further areas of efficiency in production processes and organisational structure and, on the other hand, for new and more functional responses to market needs. The decision to pursue corporate restructuring and to create an industrial structure by leveraging the development of thought, enhancing interdisciplinary study, and the Quality System proved to be a fortunate intuition in that the method introduced into the company soon began to generate value on an increasing scale, to the point of overcoming plant costs and even generating the means necessary to finance technological renewal and the introduction of a new generation of human resources. This is an evolving result, as the drive for continuous improvement repeatedly brings to light areas of waste due to inefficiencies of various kinds.

On the whole, the full adoption of the Quality System has also led, as its natural corollary, to a more conscious and routine risk management.

In the light of the results achieved, the BBV Inoflex Group’s governance and development approach is also confirmed in the 2021-2023 Strategic Plan, where the tools for critical analysis of market dynamics and, in particular, of phenomena related to global competition in the sector, as well as statistical measurement and analysis to support marketing and communication, will also be strengthened statistical analysis to support marketing and communication.