| Welcome to FATA ALUMINIUM’s internet site
After having read our presentation on the World Wide Web, you should have realized that our Company began 1919 and initially built molds and tooling.
The Foundry Machinery Division was established in 1970 and the constant challange to improve quality in this sector has driven Fata Aluminium to be a world leader in this cutting edge technology.
This unique position has allowed us to build an enviable reputation for successfully designing custom solutions which satisfy individual customer’s requirements.
The world of industry, especially in the automotive field, is changing at an increasingly fast speed. The Total Quality principles, which are now the starting point for our daily work, were generally adopted in the mid 80’s.
Such principles started a natural selection process among the different companies belonging either to the car manufacturer field or acting as suppliers for products or production system (first tier). The market globalization process occurring all over the world over the last 5 years, further geared up this selection. Today, excellence in performance “simply” requires a Company to be:
• the quickest (in terms of “time to market”)
• the most advanced in technology
• the most cost-effective
FATA Aluminium is looking at the future with the awareness of having deeply and consciously faced such challenging demands.
First of all, I would like to focus on the five key values underlying our strategy:
1. Quality in everything we do
2. Customer focus
3. International development
4. Motivation of human resources
5. Profitability
1. Quality in everything we do
Further to obtaining the ISO 9001 certification in January 1998, we created a quality system based on few indexes subjected to constant monitoring. Over the last three years, such indexes have all been improving by far, and are still affording a fair margin for further improvement.
These indexes are used to measure:
• Customer’s satisfaction (time required for offer preparation, number and management of claims from Customers, percent of on-time deliveries, satisfaction of our Customers after three-four months from the delivery of the systems)
• Quality and skills for our Suppliers (percent of conformities to the engineering specifications). In general, suppliers were reduced from 600 to 200 over the last three years; communication with them is now straightforward and open, which led in many cases to adopt the self-certification to avoid any waste of time and money.
• Total quality within Fata Aluminium (number of internal non conformances and sharing of objectives at the widest possible level).
2. Customer focus
The world of the automotive foundries is relatively restricted, therefore the major focus is on the continuous Customer satisfaction. Among our main Customers we are proud to list General Motors, Ford, Daimler-Chrysler, Teksid, Nemak, PSA, Federal Mogul. We, as Fata Aluminium are constantly monitoring the response by our Customers, as well as their level of satisfaction. One important tool is our technological edge: our Company is currently investing about 2% of the yearly sales turnover in Research and Development, both to improve our products and to identify any other product for further broadening of our current range.
This is our commitment today and we believe we will be able to inform you very soon on this second issue on the “Fata Aluminium News” web-site.The top priorities in keeping our Customer’s satisfaction at high level is also to make them confident they are able to operate with full confidentiality, a stringent requirement when working simultaneously with competitors in the same field.
I would also like to emphasise the fact that in June 1999 we were among the first five Italian industrial Companies in the “Customer Satisfaction” award instituted by “Arthur Andersen” and “Il Sole 24Ore” , the italian top financial newspaper.
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3. International Development
The international growth of our Company is clearly shown by the graph below with the consolidated sales turnover of Fata Aluminium Group and its Italian part.
Over 80% of the turnover comes from the international market, as an average. The two new Companies recently established in Mexico (1998) and in the United States should further increase the weight of these areas due to the success of the latest commercial initiatives with our major customers, i.e. GENERAL MOTORS, FORD, DAIMLER-CHRYSLER, TEKSID and NEMAK
The growth is also based on the following three concurrent favourable events:
• Investments in the aluminium for the automobile in general and in the lost foam technology in particular, for which we are among the world leading companies.
• A widespread improvement of quality within Fata Aluminium, as previously explained, which results in an improved confidence from our major customers.
• Greater commercial initiative on our part, such as the growth of our Agents network and the opening of our offices in Livonia, Michigan and Monterrey, Mexico.
4. Motivation of Human Resources
No doubt, Human Resources are the heart on which the competitiveness of an excellent solid Company, operating world-wide, is based . The team work, the mutual respect, and basically the enthusiasm and resolution in achieving our goals have always been part of our Company’s philosophy, since the very beginning and, I would daresay, are well in the DNA of all of us. We encourage our people in submitting their personal suggestions for improvement, which are carefully evaluated for prompt implementation. The organization by project management, with a specific leader for each of project, to represent the customer’s point of view within our Company, allowed us to make several people assume more responsibilities and favoured their rapid growth, improving mutual respect and strong cohesion.
5. Profitability
This is a basic issue for the whole process, which allows a Company to be one of the leaders in its business sector. Investments are constantly required to adopt the latest, more advanced production means and, as previously mentioned, in the field of Research and Development. As an average, four billion Liras per year were invested in machinery and researches over the last four years: all this would not have been possible without an adequate return of investment for our Shareholder - FATA Group - which has shown its full confidence and commitment in Fata Aluminium’s capabilities.
We are well aware of the problems to be faced, but we are aware the great opportunities in our business sector. It is my wish, for myself and for all my colleagues, that we can win on these opportunities by focusing and preparing our human resources in the best possible way.
Our company celebrated its birthday in December 1999, with 80 years of age. My personal commitment is to operate at the best of my skills to keep it among the world leaders of its field when it will be 100 years of age!
Yours comments and suggestions are most welcome to all of us.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely.
Marzio Raveggi
CEO of Fata Aluminium Group |
