TPT May 2021

Business & market news

Superior Tube strengthens quality expertise with appointment of new level III product quality manager

Steven Alai has joined precision metal tubing manufacturer, Superior Tube, as its new level III product quality manager. He will work closely with the production, quality, product development, and customer service teams at the Collegeville, USA-based company. Mr Alai will head up the development and execution of Superior Tube’s effective non-destructive testing and quality assurance program, reporting to Mark Heuberger, manufacturing, engineering and quality assurance manager. He joins the company with more than 20 years’ experience of operations and leadership roles in related fields associated with the manufacture of high quality, precision products.

Superior Tube plant manager, Cas Koshinski, said: “We are delighted to welcome Steven to the Superior Tube family. We look forward to working with him and benefitting from his leadership and operational experience for a long time to come.” Mr Alai added: “I am very pleased to be able to start on a new stage in my career, working for such a prestigious manufacturer as Superior Tube. I am looking forward to taking the non- destructive testing and quality assurance program forward to ensure that we can continue to manufacture and supply top quality, high performance tube products for customers around the world.” Superior Tube www.superiortube.com

Mr Alai joins the company after a 20 year career in the tube industry

Arjen Kamp appointed as manager to help implement agile business development at Tata Steel precision tubes division

Arjen Kamp has been appointed by Tata Steel as its new business development manager, responsible for precision tubes applications in automotive and heavy vehicles. He has more than 13 years of experience within the steel industry, combining technical expertise with business qualifications such as an MBA and MSc in metallurgy. Mr Kamp and his team will apply agile methods to help accelerate business development ideas and to create the flexibility that is needed during these challenging times. The business development team will, on a two-weekly basis, review any open actions, new leads and the overall ‘development funnel’. This method has enforced the entrepreneurial spirit in the team and allowed Tata Steel to

rapidly respond to changing priorities and opportunities during the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the results is that customer requests are followed up more quickly than in the past. Because of this agile approach the company has the ability to determine feasibility and opportunities on the spot. It can prioritise any daily business to act quickly on the issue that is most critical at that particular moment. To keep track of longer-term goals and directions, Tata has a two-weekly sprint review in place to review the overall progress and discuss the more strategic approach. Tata has adopted this agile approach for its automotive tubes business development to fully exploit the new

capabilities that have been developed in the recent years in high strength, high fatigue performance tubes. With these capabilities, it can provide additional value with its products in typical applications such as twistbeams and subframes, but also heavy vehicle products such as propeller shaft tubes or run-under-protection devices. Although currently times are difficult, as business development manager, Mr Kamp has found ways to connect with customers via Teams, Skype and Webex calls. He said: “It is a challenge to get in touch, but it turned out that via the online tools, it is also possible to understand the needs of our customers even during this crisis.” Tata Steel www.tatasteeleurope.com

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May 2021 TUBE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL