Jakość - Normalizacja - Certyfikacja
Dodatek lobbingowy do RZECZPOSPOLITEJ.
9 listopada 2007 r.

po polsku

The winner of the Professor Edward Kindlarski Polish Individual Quality Award

The philosophy of quality

Interview with Zdzisław Arlet, a Member of Management Board and Director of the Fiat Auto Poland factory in Tychy

Fiat Auto Poland has won all possible quality awards, including the EFQM Excellence Award that is recognized all over the world. This is also to your credit because you are known for your passion for perfecting manufacturing processes.

I think that I received the award not just for quality but for the overall management, even in social relations. Our activities in the broadly defined quality area began as early as the 1980's. Step by step, without models and guidances, we collected experiences and enriched our knowledge. We got interested, for example, in the Total Quality System which the Italians purchased for their factories from Americans. We selected a certain portion of the system which was adequate for our production profile. As it turned out, it solved many of our problems. We forwarded our paper to the management of the factory with the inscription "Use in case of emergency." Therefore, it took us al little as two months to implement the system of management through quality and to obtain, as the first auto industry company in Europe, the ISO 9001 certificate from TUV CERT in 1996. Then, in 2001, we implemented the environmental management system according to PN-EN ISO 14001 and, in 2002, the work safety and higiene management system PN-N-18001.

The years that followed brought a real acceleration in the area of perfecting production processes. What actions allowed you to achieve today's standards?

We continued our efforts to improve quality. We hired a consultant, Professor Nagkano from the Tokio University, who presented a different method, Total Productive Maintenance, which made it possible to keep machines on the "O" level, which meant zero losses due to breakdowns. The performance of our machines reached 99,99%. Later we convinced our employees of the need for self-certification. Its key element was that all employees took responsibility for the operations they performed and confirmed their compliance with the technology. We say that each employee is an "internal supplier and client." A supplier for the employee after him and a client for the employee before him in the production process. Moreover, I am able to check who has performed any operation in the last 15 years! We have also implemented the ANDON system that I have spotted in one of the best factories in Japan. The system makes possible an immediate reaction of an employee and his supervisor to negative occurrences and solving them at the workstation level. Three years ago we implemented the American Six Sigma method which consists of statistical methods to monitor and solve very important issues at the factory. For that purpose we trained 7 employees who received their "black belt" certificates. Their role is to solve any problem within 3 months with the assistance of a small group of employees. Recently a group lead by a "black belt" worked on lowering by 30% the energy required to heat the factory, without lowering the comfort of work; they managed to achieve their goal. A year ago we began implementing the Japanese Cost Deployment method which consists in eliminating losses. First, losses have to be identified in a very detailed fashion, for example losses due to lack of material, quality losses, losses due to machine shut-downs, workplace injuries, etc. I am also proud of the emissions indicator of the pain shop. There is a paint shop in our factory which uses organic solvents. In new paint shops of this type the emissions indicator is no more than 60 g/m2 of painted surface. Modern paint shops using water dilution have the indicator of 45 g/m2 of painted surface. In our paint shop we managed to achieve the indicator of 41 thanks to many improvements of our own invention.

What is the reception of such a perfect car in the market?

A perfect product is a guarantee of the company's growth. Currently we have sold several months worth of production. Why did the Italian management board of Fiat decide to move the production of Panda to Poland? Was it only because of cheap labor? I believe that they did it mostly because of the competences of our employees. People are this company's treasure. Even the best robot will not work unless there is a competent employee at the control panel. Therefore the decision was made to start production of the "500", the cult Italian car, in our factory. There is one indicator that proved the quality and attractiveness of our products: at any given time we have in our pipeline enough orders to cover two months worth of production.

Do you have any plans to further improve quality?

Of course. This work never ends. Once a standard is implemented, we take the next step to improve it. The quality of our production and our standards are noticed not only by our clients. Next year we will start the production of the model that will replace the Ford Motor Company's KA. It is worth mentioning here that the management of Ford stated that both factories have a "common language", that is they use the same methods and tools to implement processes.

Thank you for the conversation.

Maria Weber

Mgr inż. Zdzisław Arlet jest absolwentem Wydziału Chemicznego Politechniki Wrocławskiej. Od 1972 r. rozpoczął pracę w Fabryce Samochodów Małolitrażowych w Bielsku-Białej, najpierw w służbie jakości, a następnie kierując Wydziałem Lakierni od 1977 r. W 1987 został głównym inżynierem ds. jakości FSM, a w 1994 r. dyrektorem Zakładu Karoserii Fiat Auto Poland S.A. w Bielsku-Białej. Od 1999 r. kieruje także zakładem w Tychach. W 2002 został członkiem Zarządu Fiat Auto Poland S.A. Jest laureatem wielu nagród. Należy do aktywnych propagatorów sportu (członek Zarządu i wiceprezes Bialskiego Klubu Sportowego - BKS "Stal"). n