What is quality?
Noora knows

To be a state-of-the-art manufacturer, quality needs to be a key asset within the organization. It has to be thoroughly managed, guided and structured. That is why we would like to introduce Noora, our Quality Manager. She joined Von Gahlen in September 2019. As Noora used to work for a Von Gahlen customer, she knows exactly how to sync our internal processes with customer needs in terms of quality. She considers herself the internal representative of Von Gahlen customers. Noora shares her thoughts on quality and what quality means for Von Gahlen.

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Noora, what was your starting point?

When I entered the organization there was already a solid Quality Management System to guard the well-known quality standards of Von Gahlen. My responsibility is to fully dedicate myself to managing the quality throughout the entire organization. And to evolve this existing system into a more tangible and ‘a living thing’ among the different departments, rather than just a system or a framework.

What does that mean?

It basically means that we put quality at the core of the organization. Everything around this core, like regulations, ergonomics, operator safety, aesthetics, durability and usability, needs to be integrated in the final product. Regardless of this product being a “simple” piece of laboratory equipment or a massive hot cell installation. So you can imagine that delivering a state-of-the-art solution at the end of the line requires well-defined preceding steps, all the way from the first stage. I believe that we already start making a quality difference when a customer just wants to explore some rough, initial plans.

Can you explain?

Well, in this first stage we already take our responsibility to ask critical questions and to comprehensively advise our customers. That is also a form of quality if you ask me. We look into regulations that need to be taken into account in the engineering design and when required we provide specific protocols for our customers. This is an important part of our tailor-made approach as well.

Does that tailor-made approach require higher quality standards?

Yes. Customization means that a lot more choices and considerations need to be taken into account. So you have to be lean and adaptive while still being able to offer quality. That is why most manufacturers rather go for standardized products and solutions, because that makes it easier for them to pin down and assure quality. We on the other hand want to go for customization and tailor-made productions.

Is that also a personal challenge for you?

Before I joined Von Gahlen team I used to be a customer of Von Gahlen, which allows me to know what customers need and why. It is definitely a personal challenge to think with and for the customer. I feel the importance of their needs and that motivates me. Also, I like to bring our strategy to life here internally. Even small improvements somewhere in the chain can make big outcome differences. That is always very inspiring to see and something we want every Von Gahlen employee to experience as well.

So your colleagues must have noticed you around?

Without a doubt! But in all seriousness, I experience that quality department should go out of its own office. I want to be visible for all departments and have them participating in quality goals and strategies. So that is what I started doing the first weeks. A well aligned organization, in which everyone focusses on quality in every detail, will benefit our customers.

The Von Gahlen pay-off is: For sure. How would you define that from your point of view?

In a nutshell? I would say that customers get the certainty that they can always rely on our expertise and quality standards.

And what about ‘state-of-art’ (the S in Sure)? How would you clarify that?

That would be the fact that we offer customers the right solutions which meet their current and future demands. Our customers make long term investments on products that need to function very accurately and guarantee safety over a long period of time. We anticipate to that with our knowledge and that long term mentality is exactly what we integrate in the products.

But how do you make sure that products will last?

Apart from the intrinsic quality of the products, it is obvious that service agreements play a crucial part in extending the lifecycles of our solutions. These agreements between our service department and our customers are all about continuity. Or as we like to call it: lifecycle optimization services. Von Gahlen is also known for documenting extensively. We choose to put many hours of work in this documentation process, again to make sure that the customer can find every specific wish being checked off

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Do you want Noora to be the quality guardian of your project as well? Feel free to contact us and let us know your upcoming challenges. If it comes to nuclear medicine & radiopharmacy, radiopharmaceutical packaging or lead precision: we develop, build and implement the shielding solutions you are looking for.