Interview to Graziano Doglietto, engineer and CEO of UFS
What are UFS’s distinguishing characteristics?
Due to its structure, our company is a valuable partner for those who deal with threading on a daily basis. We produce customised solutions to make the most of all possible technological variations and to obtain the best in terms of performance and product cost. We are also a partner of qualified distributors with a programme of standard taps, available in our catalogue, with more than 8000 items, 90% of which are ready in stock and managed with an automatic recovery programme.
We offer standard taps ready to stock, also for private label, as well as customised taps following the customers’ drawing (or designed by us for their specific application).
We always apply our expertise and the most advanced technologies to create a high-quality product. We are proud to produce made-in-Italy tools, from the bar processing to the finished tool, as we have the latest generation of PVD (Physical Vapour Deposition) coating furnaces on site.
What are the key elements of your operating philosophy? What is your mission?
We focus on the qualitative growth of the product, quality stabilisation, flexibility in the management of internal processes for the standard product construction and on developing specific products upon customers’ request. Over the last twenty years, we have heavily invested on this, and the response on the market proves us right and pushes us even further in pursuing this com- mitment, even in such difficult times and with little future projection.
The objectives of UFS in the short term are to strengthen the presence on the markets we already cover and to enter new spaces in the emerging countries.
In the long term, we aim to have a widespread presence where the quality of Italian products is acknowledged and appreciated as one of the best.
What do innovation and quality mean to you?
In a company like ours, which is a single-product business, innovation is essential to give a future vision to the company. We have to be ready at all times to understand changing situations, and in the automotive industry it is fundamental to know how to act accordingly. Our sector is a niche compared to the global market for threading tools and yet is very sophisticated in terms of practical operations because it’s very complicated to achieve good results. That’s why we think it’d be difficult to replace it and this gives us some peace of mind for the coming years. Or at least we hope so! The machinery for the production of threading taps are not only demanding from the point of view of supply and costs but can only be use for the production of taps and not for other tools.
What are your customers’ greatest needs today, and what solutions do you offer to them?
Our customers want to respond to the daily demand with quick deliveries and “good products”, reducing their storage to a minimum. Our company has a big warehouse with around 500.000 pieces, divided into categories, as illustrated in our technical catalogue. We also provide an online B2B service where customers can see the product’s characteristics, and eventually make an order with same-day delivery. The strength of our company also lies in the availability of a large stock of tools at a competitive price and the fact that we can supply them in a short time, guaranteeing their 100% Italian paternity.
Can you tell us something about your products?
Our offer is divided into two different production processes: standard and special.
For the standard products, our current customer response performance is 94%; in other words, we can process 94% of demand with almost immediate delivery.
For special tools, our technical department works with the customer and develops a technical project. Once the client accepts the offer and orders it, we deliver it within the agreed delivery time.
What are the latest products you are currently presenting?
There’s plenty of new products, even if this is not the best time for the market. Our R&D department, together with our technical department, has created new high-performance products.
For the chip removal sector, we are launching the E92-93-94-95 line; as for the rolling taps we are presenting the K-Roll series.
It is clear that in times like these, it is rather difficult for our salesmen to bring these new products into the market because of the movement restrictions and all. With
time, we expect to make further progress in the market competitiveness, and we also intend to find the solution to specific problems that our Italian and foreign customers require.
How can your products improve the production process for a company?
Our products are tested in house, within our R&D unit. They are innovative both for the materials and for their shapes and coatings. We constantly want to improve our production processes according to the feedback that our customers give us. Everything that we produce is 100% guaranteed. Since the threading requirements are so varied, we have to be very good at modifying products and processes according to the plurality of the demand.
What are the areas of application, both in Italy and abroad, of your products?
Wherever there is a screw, there must be a threading process. Taps are essential for the creation of the thread and for joining metal parts to exclude welding or gluing.
The most important sectors are automotive, truck and agricultural, naval, railway, aeronautics, wind power and thermal.
What services do you offer before and after-sale?
Our new website (www.ufs.it) clearly shows our three operating sites. We provide a lot of services for our customers, both before and after the sale.
Our R&D and technical offices help our customers to identify the best product according to their processing needs. Our Customer Service is in charge of processing
all commercial requests. Our customers can use our B2B service with a simple login to find the right product they’re looking for. Here, they can check our tool stock
and order the product online for even faster order processing. After the purchase, our after-sales technical assistance department helps the customer with the correct use of the threading tools, if necessary.
What plans do you have for the future?
We want to continue to be a reliable partner/supplier in one of the most delicate mechanical processing such as the threading is, both on the Italian and foreign market (our sales are currently split 50% on Italy and 50% on foreign markets).
Reliability is the core of our 70-year-old activity, and we intend to maintain and strengthen it. We supply a difficult product, and we fully guarantee it. We do not back down if there is a problem; we do all we can to solve it.