100% is our obsession. Innovation and quality come first

Bill Gates said: “Every day we ask ourselves: how can we make this customer happy? How can we do it while continuing down the path of innovation? We ask because, if we don’t, someone else will.”

Giacomo Sabadin, CEO of IFP Europe, do you share this business philosophy?

“That’s exactly how I see it. This is what drives us forward and helps us grow: asking ourselves questions every day, finding answers and always trying to do better, so we can build new machines that are ever more efficient, with cleaning performance that achieves 100% metal cleanliness and much more.

We need to focus on technological innovation, on the ‘new’ as an improvement and extension of what came before, which in our case means developing our KP (Kleen Power) series systems. The boost always comes from the synergy we’ve built with our material and component suppliers, with whom we’ve established a relationship of mutual growth.”

Does the track record of a company and a product make them “unique”?

“It makes us authentic, original. Every now and then someone tries to copy our machines, and I think it happens to others too. But without a track record, what you get is a poor copy, in terms of performance, I mean. What’s fundamental to a product’s functionality is understanding how it works, how it performs over the medium to long term, how the machine might behave over time. Foresight and, as I said, deep knowledge and observation of the product over time.

Both the machine and the customer need a track record of at least 10 years: how many maintenance jobs were carried out in that time? How many breakdowns? How much downtime? Without that historical ‘information’, you can’t improve the machine. Experience and the machines installed over the years speak to us.”

Your goal is “zero” maintenance. What does that mean to you?

“Getting close to zero would already be a great achievement. Our ability to improve lies in study and continuous research, and our starting point is the machines we’ve already designed and built: they help us carry out objective analyses. Our systems age too. They age well, but they age. Component wear clearly leads to less efficient performance, and that’s exactly what we analyze. We put the systems we’ve built and sold under close scrutiny. Our company has a wide range of cases, so we’re able to test. Component development happens every day. Our goal is to reduce routine maintenance, extend the intervals between jobs, perhaps even eliminate the need for it altogether, while keeping non-routine maintenance. Maintenance is a cost for the company. Do we change the oil every six months? We’re aiming to never have to.”

In customer service, how can you be fast, immediate and thorough?

“It’s a goal we’ve already reached, but we’re still working on it. We have an efficient service team: nine technicians in Italy alone (IFP employees), others in every part of the world where we operate, traveling to reach customers who need assistance, plus three more who handle phone requests, and a CRM that ensures great efficiency.

Every issue has its own timing, and we’re working to improve response times as well as performance.”

Is there something “new” on the horizon?

“We’re developing new systems. The hybrid machine project is an important part of our production, solving cleaning problems across the board where modified alcohol alone can’t reach. The hybrid system cleans with both modified alcohols and water. Using latest-generation, environmentally friendly detergents, it removes stubborn contaminants such as oxidation, salts and substances that solvent can’t clean. We can guarantee the customer a solution. Now we can do that, and the hybrid machine keeps evolving. But we’re also ‘committed’ on other fronts: water-only technologies and very specific applications that require heavier treatments such as phosphating, deoxidation and pickling. That’s where our DISOX line comes in, a machine we’ll be developing in the future.”

Which direction is your production taking?

“We’re focusing more and more on machine customization. Standard machines are our most tested production, but 80% of what we build is now designed around the customer’s needs, in both technology and appearance. Design became part of our company more than 10 years ago.”

Is the clean, minimalist look meant to make maintenance easier?

“The minimalism is only on the surface. Inside our machines, everything is rational.

There are many components and countless electrical wires, but everything has its place, in a tidy, clean layout. It’s the result of years of applied engineering, study and experience. Rationality means easier maintenance. We think about after-sales, the future of the machine, the customer. When there’s a fault, we know right away where to look.”

If I say “100%”, what comes to mind?

“That result is our obsession! Customers come to us because they have a cleaning problem to solve: they want a part that comes out dry, clean and good to look at. We have a test room where we can run trials on a standard machine and a hybrid one. We also have a lab where we measure cleanliness with a scanning microscope: we count the dirt particles still present after cleaning and weigh the part, all to verify the level of cleanliness and what contaminants remain. Appearances can be deceiving… These tests help us reach 100% cleanliness. Our goal.”