Year 2010 was the Year of Quality at ISD Dunaferr Co. Ltd. The programs, started in the name of this theme, provided the tool for achievement of the set objectives: highlighting the quality awareness and the work performed in a qualitative way at the company, resulting in increasing customer satisfaction, even under significantly growing customer requirements, additionally remain and further on strengthen the market positions of the company. On 14 December at the program closing meeting, where also Lukács Péter, PhD Deputy CEO of Strategic Technical Affairs, Serhiy Klyuchkin, acting Deputy CEO of HR and Oleksandr Vorobyov, Deputy CEO of Operations, participated – Hevesiné Kővári Éva, Quality and Environmental Management Director, brought up the most significant events of the programs.

A brief overview will follow, without providing a complete list of events: during the year more than 50 speciality articles were published about the elements of quality, technique, market requirements and other related issues in the columns of Dunaferr Weekly, written by the experts of the Directorate. In the line of the organised events important occasions were the Quality Management Day on 26 May, the ISD Dunaferr Open Day organised for the Hungarian Quality Management branch on 15 June, the lectures given at different vocational conferences, LEAN-learning for the managers, and several other programs as well. A brief message, printed on the salary documents, might be considered a small contribution, but it reached each and every employee, and formulated unambiguously the most important objective: „Our salary, job and future are ensured only if our Customers are satisfied with us! It is up to you as well! Pay special attention to the quality!”

Competed successfully

The competition called ‘Who knows more about quality?’ – organised in October – was one of the most popular programs of the year. Twelve teams measured their strengths with each other; in course of serious and humorous tasks managers and employees had the opportunity to show how much they actually know about the issue of quality. The formation called Válidó HH of the Cold Rolling mill took the first place, with the participation of Ágoston Zsoltné, Farkas Zoltán, Gallai Imre, Kuminka Zsuzsanna and Virágné Brust Mónika. The team called ‘Steel mill A-team, or every way leads to the warehouse’ came second; team members: Krausz Zoltán, Tar Roland, Horváth István, Dolmány Mihály and Franyó Zsolt. The Devils of Quality, i.e. the Quality Department ended up on the third place, team members: Nagy Irén, Flenderné Gyarmati Andrea, Kovács Zsuzsanna, Tóth Eszter and Tóth Lajos. The title of the ‘Most Creative Team’ was earned by the team C???? Parádé, i.e. the Production Management Directorate, team members: Hajnal Attila, Szöllősi László, Szaksz Árpád, Tar László and Bognár István. The most humorous team proved to be the team of the Hot Rolling mill with the following team members: Alpek Sándor, Tóth Zoltán, Illés Péter and Simon Norbert.

Acknowledgements for the Best

In course of the Year of Quality Program several tenders and competitions were organised. In the competition called The Most Developing Plant quality management indexes of January- October 2010 were compared to the data collected from years 2008-2009 and the winner was the technological unit, which showed the largest positive change. The first place of the contest went to the Lőrinc Rolling mill, second place to the Blast furnace and the third place to the Cold Rolling mill.

The public summons called Quality Improvement Ideas targeted improvement of the work performed or the product made on any fields of the company. This possibility also mobilised the people, because we received 99 ideas to the call. The hard jury evaluated these based on the idea’s novelty, manageability and their expected effect. Among the seven awarded ideas there was for example one about extending the utilisation of the product left on hand, another about vocational training and there was one man of ideas making suggestions for further improvement of the steel quality. The awarded brainstorming employees were the following: Farkas Zoltán (Cold Rolling mill – Leading Operator), Krausz Zoltán (Steel mill – Chief Unit Manager), László Ferenc (Production Unit – Plant Manager), Narancsik Zsolt (Material Testing and Calibration Laboratories Directorate – Head of Department), Nicky Rozália (Lőrinc Rolling mill – Technologist), Tulman Sándorné (Quality Management and Environmental Directorate – Chief Controller), Vékony Ferenc (Steel mill – Unit Manager).

The objective of the competition titled The Employee Performing Outstanding Quality at the ISD DUNAFERR Co. Ltd. was the moral acknowledgement of the activities of those, who do outstanding vocational and qualitative work in the everyday life of the company, for the company, especially in the field of production and technology; additionally those, who showed and spread quality awareness thinking and behaviour. 1003 persons voted for the 50 employees appointed by the managers and based on the votes 18 employees were awarded. Employees performing outstanding work were the following: Ambrus Stella (Purchasing Directorate – Chief Associate), Bajusz Gyula (Sheetforming Ltd. – Production line, Group leader), Borsos Jánosné (Material Testing and Calibration Laboratories Directorate – Accrediting engineer), Francsák Sándor (Hot Rolling mill – Breakdown roll operator), Hajdók Zoltán (Production unit – Unit Manager), Hoffman Ferencné (Quality and Environmental Management Directorate – Associate), Horváth Sándor (Galvanising Plant – Galvanising line, Skilled worker), Kovács Ferenc (Production Management Directorate – Storekeeper), Kuminka Zsuzsanna (Cold Rolling mill – Production Development), Müller Gábor (Maintenance Directorate – Electric inspector), Petrás Tamás (Quality and Environmental Management Directorate – Quality controller), Pomázi Károly (Energetics Directorate – Unit Manager), Simon Gyula (Steel mill – Steel producer), Szabó István (Blast Furnace unit – Lubricating operator), Szabó Mária (Material Testing and Calibration Laboratories Directorate – Development engineer), Tóth Kálmán (Labour and Health Protection Directorate – Labour Safety Chief Associate), Tulman Sándorné (Quality and Environmental Management Directorate – Chief Controller), Zemanko Barna (Purchasing Directorate – Delivery Associate).

Closing the program Lukács Péter, PhD Deputy CEO of Strategic Technical Affairs, indicated that the largest success of these programs and the similar ones that quality awareness becomes an elementary value in the company collective and all employees perform their work on their own field in a way to provide the most to the common success.

Szilágyi Irén

Commitment to Excellence

One of the most significant results of the Year of Quality Program is the successful competition of our company in course of the tender called Commitment to Excellence.

– By participating in the tender our objective was to let our work, performed in the name of quality, evaluated by an extern, independent organisation as well – said to our paper Lukács Péter, PhD Deputy CEO of Strategic Technical Affairs. – Three projects were presented in our tender documents: ‘Modern Communication of Quality’, ‘Development of a New Quality Management Index System’ and ‘Development of the Online Possibilities of Customer Satisfaction Measurement’. On 10 December we had a successful audit at ISD Dunaferr Co. Ltd. performed by the Hungarian member organisation of the international EFQM, Association for Excellence Public Society, where our company performed well. The acknowledgement will be taken over soon - expected in February 2011 – in the building of the Parliament in course of a celebration and we are allowed to use the logo, indicating excellence, on our business documents for two years.

The Market already Reacted

The main organiser, the “engine” of the Year of Quality Program was Hevesiné Kővári Éva, Quality and Environmental Management Director, who revelled after the closing meeting that she feels that the initiative reached its goal and the project – requiring an enormous amount of work, time and creativity - proved to the advantageous:

– In connection with the financial crises, when the demand market gathered ground we had to face that our mentality, which was adequate for business management in the previous years, was not suitable for strengthening the market position of the company anymore. Every employee of the company needs to adopt a new approach focusing on quality awareness and on the importance of performing a qualitative work. And not as an empty slogan, but as an operative practice. When it comes to the organised programs, we made certain benchmarking activities as well; we also completed the events with tools already approved at other companies and vocational organisations. Beyond these the principal of being easily understandable and following common sense in case of all events was observed; not the scientific approach was our goal, but to let the information reach more people on every level of the company hierarchy. The internal feedback and the program’s reception by the employees were unambiguously positive, but we could present success of market aspects as well. Based on the complaint statistics for the first eleven months of the year, the number of complaints concerning product quality, decreased by almost 40% compared to the previous year. I think that nothing else could indicate it better that we are on the right track.