First Five Month Review by Patrick David, Head of Quality Assurance – PI DPG

I was given a very friendly welcome to the PI team and I was really impressed by the openness which began well before my start at PI.

In fact, before joining PI, I was allowed to attend the strategic meeting of PI DPG as a guest and also to introduce myself. This is not necessarily usual and made me look forward to the new team even more.

When I think back to the past five months, I am very impressed by having been included in the selection of my future team and in creating the roadmap even before starting at PI. The trust Axel Widenhorn and his executive team gave to me in advance made me feel very appreciated. I really enjoy the environment of trust and appreciate the good atmosphere at the company.

Interacting with each other is very straightforward and easy which I welcome. Nobody embellished the future challenges, so I had a realistic feeling for the tasks and my team from an early stage. This has definitely been confirmed and I am pleased that I was prepared for this.

As in every transformation process that a company goes through, there are visionary employees and anxious ones. The different approaches towards changes in the direct or indirect working environment are totally human. As a senior manager, I am also constantly learning and realize that I sometimes do things a bit too fast and that I should try to include my team on a long term basis. I am pleased to see employees and colleagues actively getting involved with the new processes and tools and driving forward and helping to shape things.

We should use our different communication platforms such as the monthly executive staff update, the townhall or coffee corner meetings to keep up-to-date on what is actually going on. I am pleased that some employees have already joined in despite the very high workload and large number of incoming orders.

Furthermore, I can see that we are heading towards a sustainable future. In my opinion, the tools and working methods selected are forward-looking and will bring PI forward sustainably. Here, I would, for example, like to mention our choice of process analysis tools.

From the point of view of quality assurance, I am a real advocate of the 360° product development process which ensures that all of the relevant groups are involved at the right time creating a lean process without the need for reworking. In the end, this helps our clientele as the customers and not the products return!

Our processes need to be described more accurately and comprehensibly. Additionally, we should use contemporary tools. This means a lot of work but will eventually result in more clarity.

In Quality Assurance, we use a process-oriented approach and link the core processes with the relevant departments. We will continue to develop this approach.

I am focusing on a preventative quality assurance approach in product and process development and am trying to avoid stressful firefighting activities at all costs. The CAQ quality software will really help us with this. Firstly, I would like to concentrate on the customer complaints module, then on internal complaints and supplier complaints. When we are prepared for and experienced in this we can then take quality assurance a good step forward.

Clearly, I am enthusiastic about quality-related topics. At PI, I would like to set up a strong support function for our value streams where we strengthen the analog exchange at eye level and mutually learn from best practices.

I am convinced that we currently have a historical chance to prepare ourselves for the future in the best possible way. The amount of freedom I am being given to do this is extremely motivating.

For many years, I would drive past PI and see how the company was growing. Now I am part of it and want to actively shape what we need for the future of PI.