Plastics News Europe - July/August 2019 - 26

QUALITY

Q&A

'Quality is not
something we
need to sell'

As a key driver of corporate reputation, quality is absolutely essential, says Harry Prunk,
member of the board and shareholder of SIKORA, a company whose products help to
make quality measurable. By Karen Laird

Let's talk about you first. You joined SIKORA in
1975, right after your studies. SIKORA had been
founded a mere two years before. Was it a
conscious choice to work with such a young
company? What was the focus of the company
then?
To answer this question, I will need to go into a bit more
detail. After finishing school, I thought the best thing for
me - perhaps because of my family background: my father was a carpenter - would be to first of all, learn a job.
I went to work for a company that manufactured converters for TV systems that allowed people to see more programs than the one channel at that time. It was here that
I gained my training as an electrician in specialty electronics. That company also built 100%-low-noise receivers for radio stations.
After three-and-a-half years there, I joined the
German Airforce, where I became involved in radar
technology to detect low flying targets. I then studied electronical engineering in Bremen and joined
SIKORA. My alternative would have been to become a teacher, which for me was also quite interesting because it would have meant that I could
continue working with young people and as well
as staying in the field of electronics.

"The key point about
quality is that there
are quality aspects
everywhere in our
daily life. And
in the industrial
world, like the
hose & tube or
the plastic
industry,
quality is
essential"

Were you always interested in quality? What
is the attraction?
Well, as you can see from the above, my initial job
was actually more electronics related than quality related.
But the key point about quality is that there are quality
aspects everywhere in our daily life. And in the industrial
world, like the hose & tube or the plastic industry, quality
is essential. So the job I have now is very much like the job
I could have had 45 years ago, working as a teacher. I
spend more or less most of my time talking about quality
and its influence on production processes and on the final
product, so that customers understand that in our world
today, quality is an absolute necessity.

Quality assurance is, as you pointed out, an
essential part of manufacturing. Would you say it is
generating more and more attention, as issues such
as e.g. identification, traceability, zero defects
become increasingly important. Have you noticed
this among your customers?
As I said before, quality is not something that we need to
sell. Quality is something that is demanded at all manufacturing sites. Years ago, companies invested in measuring equipment. Today, the focus lies on automatic control
and on quality improvement. The points you mention are
therefore recognisable and familiar to us from our customers. Our customers know that SIKORA is aware of the
needs in the industry. This makes us, quite often, the first
company they contact about these needs.

SIKORA has meanwhile grown into a globally
operating company. Are there geographical
differences in the type of products sold?
SIKORA actually opened its first subsidiary 25 years ago.
Today, we have a completely different situation to the
way it used to be in earlier times. These days, many of
our customers also operate with a global network and
global production facilities. Our customers' name is typically related to the quality they provide. Hence, any geographical differences in the type of products sold no
longer exist. Today, we see at internationally operating
companies a need for quality everywhere, wherever in
the world they are active. Moreover, these big international companies are pushing local firms to invest also in
higher quality.

Can you say something about the specific
expertise SIKORA has in the plastics field? What is
your focus?
When we talk about our expertise in the plastics industry, we first have to define what we mean by "plastics
industry". Are we talking about a company which manufactures raw materials, or are we talking about the
companies that consume plastics, such as those in the
automotive industry, the wire & cable industry, the hose

JULY/AUGUST 2019

Plastics News Europe - July/August 2019

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