Development through certification...

 

 On August 30, 2019, the Sèvremoine (49) plant, the EDILTECO® France production unit, which manufactures and markets EPS aggregates for lightweight mortars and concretes, ready-to-use lightweight mortars, as well as innovative Exterior Thermal Insulation systems, was officially ISO 9001 certified.

 We could almost get used to it, as EDILTECO® is so well-versed in certifications, yet this new certification is not to be trivialized.
It is the result of a permanent movement, initiated by management and taken up by employees who, individually and collaboratively, participate together in the evolution of the company. A company that has made innovation, performance and certification the levers of its commitment to its customers!   Also, the brand's demanding value, based on a constant desire to continually improve the quality of its products and its production processes, both in the technical monitoring of construction sites and in monitoring customer satisfaction, is reaffirmed. This new ISO 9001 certification obtained for the Sèvremoine factory is further proof and confirms an approach already undertaken, 4 years ago, for polystyrene (EPS) plates.   A COMMON DESIRE AROUND THE QUALITY PROCESS For 4 years, the Sèvremoine factory has already been committed to a quality approach. In fact, polystyrene (EPS) plates already had ACERMI certification. However, the basis of ACERMI certification, which involves two annual audits of the site (organization and production, production teams and quality system) is close to the current ISO 9001 qualification system.   Already registered in an approach identical to ISO 9001 for the PSE part, the factory benefited from a favorable prerequisite for obtaining it. All that remained was to organize the transition to final certification, integrating the company's other processes. With this condition in mind and following the example of EDILTECO® Italy, which is already certified, the President of the EDILTECO Group, Paolo Stabellini, and the entire senior management wanted a similar implementation in order to standardize working methods in all factories bearing the brand name.   They advocate the need for a framework, known and recognized internationally by the majority of companies in the industrial world, in terms of quality management systems. The implementation of these standardized practices within the structure, their application and development, aimed at improving the quality of Edilteco products or, at the end of the chain, obtaining better customer satisfaction (main objective) was made possible thanks to the staff, involved and concerned with carrying out this business project. The employees did not hesitate for a single moment to get involved, filling out production monitoring sheets on a daily basis, providing information on the quality of the products manufactured. These additional tasks, grafted onto their existing tasks, corroborate a shared desire to see the company credited with a new certification, thus ensuring its leadership in quality, innovation, competence and reliability, and securing jobs.    THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ISO 9001 BRINGS CHANGES A year and a half ago, EDILTECO® France recruited a quality manager for the Sèvremoine site, specifically dedicated to the implementation of ISO 9001 certification and monitoring product quality.   The identification and analysis of the company's processes and the different professions enabled the establishment of pilots, responsible for monitoring the objectives and indicators.   The activity was in fact structured by writing:
"We write down what we do and then we link it to the company's own objectives. This is what allows us to validate the meaning of our daily actions, to filter out certain actions that would be useless or inconsistent... In fact, it's a way of saying what we do, why we do it, in line with the company's approach.
Furthermore, it also creates the opportunity to define additional quality controls, to validate that we are making a product that meets the customer's demand and requirements, or a product standard.
This quality approach therefore allows both a formalization of the controls carried out and a regulation of daily activity" Marie Chevailler, QSE Manager, and Damien Vincent, tell us.
Site Manager. Productivity has therefore been improved by implementing indicator tracking for: customer satisfaction, the number of product returns, non-compliant production, etc., all indicators allowing for monitoring of activity and quality of activity. Additional controls, complementing the minimum controls, have been added, and now the Sèvremoine factory staff have written, detailed, and precise procedures, operating modes for each task, each activity. This simplifies the integration of new employees, and transmission is ensured by dedicated written support that describes each position: the list of tasks, how to perform them, the tools with which to carry them out, the chronology of steps, etc. Similarly, several daily problems have been identified and listed by the agents themselves, involved in the process, and who thus participate directly in the improvement of their own tasks. From now on, they integrate and embody ISO 9001 thinking in line with the company. Thus, a quality control discipline is applied systematically and comprehensively throughout the production chain, just as all marketed products from the EDILTECO® design office and R&D department are rigorously tested. The activity and process management system, developed in accordance with the international ISO 9001 standard, offers the same qualitative perspective on the technical and commercial relationship that EDILTECO® maintains with its customers. And this concern for doing well, for placing quality and confidence in the products and in the partnerships that are formed, is instilled by the EDILTECO® Group in all its subsidiaries.