Certified precision: voestalpine Precision Strip – Securely Ahead of the Future
- 11/02/2016
- Business Assurance Industry & Energy
- Created by PhDr. Andreas Wanda
"Best in Class" is the credo of this 100% subsidiary of voestalpine AG. Strip steel from voestalpine Precision Strip is exported to more than 70 countries for further processing in the printing and paper industry, the packaging industry and the production of technical blades and components for technical plants: "Most people don't know how close they are to our company every day. Our strip steel was very likely also used in their air conditioners, for instance, and in their razor blades," explains Leander Ahorner, CEO of voestalpine Precision Strip Group. Materials produced with maximum precision by his company, which frequently operates as the world's only supplier of some niche products, turn up all over the place in everyday life.
Quality Counts on Partnerships and Experience
This "closeness" is reflected in longstanding business relationships, explains Helmut Henökl, who is responsible for the market leader's integrated management system: "Absolute reliability and commitment are the basis for our partnerships, many of which have existed for decades." Since 2003 voestalpine Precision Strip has had TÜV AUSTRIA audit its integrated management system and the documentation for it, starting with the management manual, an important component for expanding the company's edge in quality and technology.
Voestalpine Precision Strip has successfully completed four certification audits: Quality Management in accordance with ISO 9001:2015, Energy Management in accordance with ISO 50001:2011 (increasing energy efficiency), ISO 14001:2015 (overall environmental performance) and Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series OHSAS 18001. To auditor Klaus Mlekus, this Waidhofen-based company is a model company: "There a standard isn't simply fulfilled at that moment, and then the management manual is put away in a drawer; voestalpine Precision Strip practices these standards proactively." So, the upgrade certifications according to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 went off harmoniously.
Acting Proactively, Practicing Quality and Environmental Protection
Ahorner clarifies more precisely: "For example, three years ago we completely redefined our corporate values. These are imparted to all new hires, and so we are not surprised by such changes arising from the ISO 9001 revision." Risk management mandatory by ISO 9001:2015 in operations was also practiced at Böhler Uddeholm Precision Strip years before it was incorporated in voestalpine in 2007 and then only changed slightly, according to Ahorner, who assesses embedding in internationally operating corporate groups as an important impetus.
Environmental protection and resource conservation also play a vital role for globally operating companies. With the certifications for ISO 14001 and 50001, metrics are devised, observation of which helps companies ascertain further saving potentials in terms of their use of resources and implement improvements. "There too we're our famous one step ahead," Ahorner explained, because voestalpine Precision Strip masterminds putting solutions into practice already before certification audits. "For example, at our Kematen plant we had asked the manufacturer of bell-type annealing plants at our own initiative, as the driving force, whether the system could be optimized with regard to the recovery of process gas and heat," reported Leander Ahorner, "Today, this facility in Kematen is the first of its kind in the world." To the CEO, the environmental management certifications are the ultimate consequence of what voestalpine Precision Strip has practiced and reflected about for years.
Planning Tomorrow Today: Occupational Health & Safety and New Generations
Occupational health and safety is also a matter of course for this high-tech industrial company. "The risk of accidents was relatively high because of the danger of cuts that existed for the products to be processed, such as cutting lines and punching knives," said Ahorner whose team introduced an occupational health and safety management system in 2007: "In recent years a lot of money and resources was also invested in technical occupational health and safety, ergonomics and personal protective equipment," reported Henökl, who today sees a particular challenge in intensified awareness of occupational safety.
Its foresighted handling of coming generations shows that the "human element" takes the highest priority for voestalpine Precision Strip: "It is important to us to deal with the coming generations now. That's simply what it takes if you want to run a business successfully, "Ahorner sums it up. He sees growing quality requirements as constant companions of the future: "Automation. Industry 4.0. Reproducibility: When you look at customers' further processing, they're trying to automate more and more, and then you understand their requirements for flatness, straightness, surfaces, tolerances, etc."
The Future: Quality, Environment & the Human Element
In the future, too, attention will be paid to the quality leadership of voestalpine Precision Strip's products, says Leander Ahorner, an engineer and executive who, along with his employees, on a daily basis practices the advantages of certified entrepreneurial quality and of operational management of energy and environmental matters. It appears as though the future of voestalpine Precision Strip is already certified today: "Best in Class" in the world market. Made in Ybbstal.
