Jos van der Kooij, with over two decades of experience at Tata Steel Nederland, is recognised for his expertise in coated products, particularly outer panels. Recently he transitioned from his role as Technical Manager Coated Products to the position of General Manager Product Management and Development. His insights into the outer panels segment reflect a deep understanding and commitment to quality that he and his team have developed over the years.
What is your experience in the field of Outer Panels?
As a Technical Manager for Coated Products I was responsible for the quality assurance on our coating lines for over 10 years. This means ensuring the quality of the outer panel materials we supply to our customers by meeting their specifications and delivering them on time without defective coils. Of course, this was not all up to me; our operators have a significant impact on the quality of our products as well. Therefore, a big part of this role consisted of training the operators and translating customer requirements into understandable instructions and processes.
Therefore, we have implemented a detailed script for our installations: for example, already two days before we start to produce outer panels, we begin to clean the lines, the polishers, the brushes. Because even tiny dust particles can lead to imprints on the steel substrate that can be visible once it is formed and painted into a shiny engine hood, for instance.
That is why we make a great effort to bring the voice of the customer into our plants. For example, we have placed an entire car body into our plant so that all colleagues can see where the steel we make is used. Because we see that it makes a difference whether operators produce “just another coil” or really understand what the material is aimed for: Who is the customer? What product will be made from the steel? Why do we need to be so precise? Our aim is to make the coils less anonymous for the operators, so that they become more aware of the customer specifications.
What do you think our customers need?
First of all, the product quality needs to be outstanding. As mentioned, for outer panels our customers look for a very high surface quality. So we make every effort to ensure that we produce the steel above specifications. This also affects the zinc bath, for example. We make intensive efforts on chemistry control to maintain the correct proportion of zinc and the additional chemicals like aluminium and iron. Only then our customer will benefit from the high standard of our outer panel material, even after forming.
Consistency is also very important to our customers. They must be able to rely on us to deliver the specific product quality consistently and reliably each time.
For example, the operators check production parameters, such as temperature at predetermined intervals and lightly sand parts of strip to see if the product meets the surface quality specifications.
What are trends that customers will consider important 10 years from now?
We have seen a continuous increase in quality standards in recent years. Nowadays, with outer panels we are talking about very local defects that you can only see through a microscope, but which can be visible on a painted car in the sunlight. For the future, I expect our customers to have even higher quality demands.
Another central theme for the coming years is sustainability. I expect our customers to want more and more recycled steel in their vehicles and a greener, more sustainable way to produce liquid steel. Tata Steel is currently exploring the possibilities of recycled steels. It could be challenging for a premium product like outer panels to achieve the required product quality also with recycled steel, but let’s see what future developments will bring us.
Finally, I think cost efficiency and cost control will always be important for our customers. So maybe, in the future, they will think about developments such as reducing the amount of paint or zinc – which will also be beneficial for their environmental footprint. And for us, this may lead to new or improved outer panel products.
What are you really good at as Tata Steel Nederland?
From a quality point of view, we are really good at producing outer panel material with high surface quality for the automotive industry. For example, we have many additional polishers installed on our rolls to protect the steel surface and with our chemistry control we deliver a very clean zinc layer. As a demonstration, we have already received various Excellence Awards from our customers for our product quality.
Customer satisfaction surveys also show that we take their problems seriously by solving potential issues in a secure way and making great efforts to avoid disruptions from happening. For me, this also proves that our efforts to make the customer’s voice heard in our production plants are really paying off.
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