Franco Zamuner

Hey Franco what did you have for breakfast?

What a great way to start the week.

Simon

Hey Franco what did you have for breakfast?

Hi Simon,

my breakfast consisted of a slice of raspberry cake, some biscuits and a strong cup of coffee. Regards. Franco

Certainly beats my cornflakes mate.

Franco for how long have you been into quality and was it a conscious decision?

Regards,
Simon

Franco for how long have you been into quality and was it a conscious decision?

I use to say I've been into quality (unconsciously) ever since

That's correlated with the definition of quality: I didn't know there were folks out there discussing what "quality" means, but I was always making clear cuts between words and meanings. Maybe you know mate, Italian language is a sort of mobile sand and I didn't want to get caught by it.

For instance, in English you say "control" and "check" and we all know the difference, while in Italian both are translated "controllo" and this is a DISASTER for quality. When someone says "controllo" you never know what he means: check or control ?

If you want to know when it became a job, well I must confess I started earning money for it in Jan 1993.

It was an unconscious decision, a buddy and former colleague of mine told me not to do that, he told me it was going to be a dead end job, I would have never been able to get out of it and so on, nevertheless (or accordingly ? ) I'm still here

So did you start off in production or engineering or have you always had soft hands?

I will give someone else a go in a minute.

Simon

So did you start off in production or engineering or have you always had soft hands?

First of all, I have to say that money is the driving force of the whole process.

If I had enough money, I would never wake up early in the morning just to see the face of my boss shouting loudly.

I started in Research & Development in a pharma company. OTC manufacturing. 1991. R&D was formerly outsourced but too expensive, so the decision was to enroll a person, preferably with a Chemistry Degree, to start up the internal R&D Dept. At the time I had no idea of QC nor of QA, no idea of pharma regulatories, little or no organizational skills, but I had a Chemistry Degree and that was criteria n. 1 in the Big Boss mind. He thought that Chemistry graduates has to pass many difficult examinations, they have a very hard time at University, you know the evening - laboratories lesson and so on, and they were supposed to be tougher than other graduates (his words, not mine ).

As a matter of fact, there are few Chemistry graduates compared to other sciences, males are much less than females ... so the competition was quite easy to win for me.

I started working immediately after having finished the military service, which in Italy was mandatory at that time, now it's over.

Well, after a week in R&D, the once-in-a-life-time event happened.

The QC clerk was ill for and there was no one able to perform chemical and microbiological analysis in the company. You know in pharma the positive release is mandatory, so what could we do ? Franco will do it !!!

Performing standard QC analysis is an extremely boring activity , I really hate it with all my heart. I don't like all Lab activities as such, but I like R&D and computer modelling, I worked with a heterogeneous catalysis staff at the University, a very "clean" place with full automated gas flow reactor, on line sampling equipment and I like understanding the reaction mechanism, improving yield, statistics for experimenters and that kind of stuff.

While the clerk was ill, we made some interesting discoveries , just can't tell you more, and because of that it was decided that my person would have to share its time let's say 75 % QC and QA and 25 % R&D

I did it, and it was rather 95% QC and QA and 5 % R&D. After some time eating- my-own-liver furiously, I saw the dead end job and the poor quality of the human relationship and I decided to search for another job.

To my great surprise I found out that companies were much more interested in QC/QA experience rather than R&D. Moreover, no one (NO ONE) seemed to need chemistry specialists in heterogeneous catalysis, or at least they did not want to pay for them (remember the driving force ?).

There was a vacancy in QC Manager in a brewery, I applied for the job, job interview in English language, WOW ... and got it right the first time .

... to be continued.

I want to know a little about your personal life Franco. What's your favourite film? What kind of music do you like? What do you do of an evening when you take off your white coat?

Regards,
Simon

Braveheart is my favourite film.

The marvellous world of Amelie Poulain is #2.

I like Mozart very much, he is #1. Johann Sebastian Bach is #2.

Bizet's Carmen is fantastic and I love Verdi's Traviata too.

I also like listening at modern music, Simon & Garfunkel, many italian singer-songwriters and popular songs, Lucio Battisti, Francesco De Gregori, Mina, the 60's and the 70's, but not the 80's, though I must confess I don't know many of the groups you mentioned.

The soundtrack of Amelie is lovely.

I live in the country since october 2004, in a terraced house. The place is called Terzo d'Aquileia.

In former times I have been living in the town of Trieste, 230.000 inhabitants, which is located nearby the Italian - Slovenian border.

Hobbies: riding my bike, jogging around the fields, bricolage and gardening (lawn maintenance is exhausting mate), reading books (currently Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist), organizing BBQ-parties for friends and relatives, doing some jobs for the Italian Association for Quality, a no-profit organization which I try to help in the diffusion of quality culture, surfing the Internet, talking with neighbours and generally you know ... meeting people, discussing: the village has some 1200 inhabitants, maybe they know me and my wife much better than I know them.
Watching football matches: well, my wife Fiorenza would tell you that this is is MY ONLY HOBBY, don't believe her .
Sometimes I like to go to see the football matches at the stadium: I prefer Premier League or Champions League, so I have only little chances. As you know I support Juventus Turin and Turin is 500 km far from the place where I live.

Favourite Food? Wine? Holiday destination? Actual / dream car?

I live in the country since october 2004, in a terraced house. The place is called Terzo d'Aquileia.  In former times I have been living in the town of Trieste, 230.000 inhabitants, which is located nearby the Italian - Slovenian border.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How about posting a snap or two from beautiful Trieste or Terzo d'Aquileia - you could use the gallery.

Where did you learn to speak English so brilliantly?

If I may I'll also ask the dreaded question before someone else does - what are your long term plans both professional and personal.

Regards,
Simon

How about posting a snap or two from beautiful Trieste or Terzo d'Aquileia - you could use the gallery.

Trieste gallery

Where did you learn to speak English so brilliantly?

Thank you so much Simon, you're very kind
I learned it at British School in Trieste. I think it's a very good school for children and teen agers. It was more than 25 years ago.
I try to keep up reading books, Speak Up (it's a magazine with an enclosed CD), and reading Forums just as SDF
I've never been in UK nor in English speaking countries, though I've been invited to spend some time in Melbourne where my cuzs Walter and Evelina and aunt Argia live (Hi cuz ).

If I may I'll also ask the dreaded question before someone else does - what are your long term plans both professional and personal.

I must tell you that I have already reached many of my goals
You know, we always need new goals and I'm currently thinking of both in my mind , but even if i had clear ideas I would prefer not to post them on the Internet . Sorry mate.

I must tell you that I have already reached many of my goals
You know, we always need new goals and I'm currently thinking of both in my mind , but even if i had clear ideas I would prefer not to post them on the Internet . Sorry mate.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's OK mate I understand.

It's only Tuesday and you already have more posts then me for the whole of last week - what's that telling us.

Have a nice day...

Simon

It's only Tuesday and you already have more posts then me for the whole of last week - what's that telling us.

Simon, you quality guy The number of site visitors of last week could have been less than current week because of holidays. The performance index should be normalized dividing by the number of contacts/week.

Don't try and make me feel better…YOU'RE MORE POPULAR!

Anyway I think you have some unanswered questions from Yorkshire to do.

What did you do last night?

Simon

How about posting a snap or two from beautiful Trieste or Terzo d'Aquileia

Couldn't be able to find any info on Terzo d'Aquileia in English.
Only the official website, in Italian.
Terzo d'Aquileia website
There are 2600 inhabitants, not 1200 as I told you yesterday.

Nearby
Aquileia surroundings

Favourite Food?

Gold medal to FRICO. It's a local food, a sort of fried cheese very salty. You put three or four different cheeses in a pan with some butter and sliced onions (sliced potatoes are optional), and heat it and the whole thing melts and develop a thin solid outer "skin". The inside is creamy and salty and wow ... wonderful . In former times the mountain folks used to prepare it with the rests of the cheese that they could not eat as such.
Nowadays you can eat it all around the region, also in the hill plain area.
Silver medal to pizza. I hate liquid food, all forms. No spoons in Zamuner's home.

I don't like wine, I prefer beer. Pilsener unpasteurized and before filtration, with some yeast inside. Bavarian Weizen beer is also special. Microbreweries are growing in Italy, there are a few nearby. They brew a very good beer indeed

Currently my car is a Ford Escort Explorer. I don't love cars, I just need them to move myself quickly or reach places where I can't go by train or by plane. They're too expensive and gasoline price is too high IMHO.
Actually I am a commuter, I use the train to go to work.

I loved my wedding trip: we did a river cruise along the Danube. Very romantic , started from Nurnberg in Germany, ended in Budapest, wonderful experience, unforgettable.

I would like to visit Alaska.

Anyway I think you have some unanswered questions from Yorkshire to do.

Done.

What did you do last night?

Gold medal to FRICO

See the Guinness Frico at Frico Guinness in Graz

And a standard version at the top left

Standard Frico

There was a vacancy in QC Manager in a brewery, I applied for the job and got it
... to be continued.

Saferpakers,

let's go on. I started from the bottom line in the brewery in Jan 1993.
Two months in production, in two different plants: brewing, fermentation, filtration, bottling and warehousing; then a couple of months in the Central Laboratories, and after that a 2 months full-immersion Brewing Course (for non German speakers, in English) at Doemens Institute in Munich. Enjoyed very much Bavarian lifestyle, drank oaks of beer, ate pork and sausages twice a day and learned a few German words and finally I was supposed to be ready for Quality Control management

Well, you know it's not so easy.

Plant is working three shifts for ten or even eleven months a year, efficiency is number 1 priority and ... I've never had heard of Prof. Juran and Prof. Deming I've only had heard of brewing tecniques and stuff like that
Brewing technologies were changing and yeasts were too, I reported to both Plant Manager and Quality Manager (never do that, please Saferpakers, never !!!) and quite often the goals were different ...

The job was mainly inspection, little or no system activities. I did not know neither Juran nor Deming and even if I had known them, the Big Bosses did not know

I've had a very hard time, but I learned a lot because I survived till May 1996.

There was a spirit company looking for a young professional with a so called quality background, possibly with bottling experience, in order to register to ISO 9001:1994 and improve process performances.

Do you guess how the story goes on ? The candidate was ... Franco again.

to be continued ...

Franco it's like a soap opera; I like your style, I'm looking forward to the next instalment.

Much more interesting than last week's loser.

Simon

I want to know a little about your personal life Franco.

Favourite actress Monica Bellucci

Favourite football player Pavel Nedved, the so-called "Czech cannon".

Franco it's like a soap opera

It was in 1996. On the very first day the Big Boss called me and told me that I have been enrolled simply because the other applicants had refused the job

You can easily understand how this f*****g leader was motivating and empowering my person and his team

One of the first challenges was training people in ISO 9001:1994 and I had never read it nor understood

I asked for training and attended at many seminars: statistical quality control, ISO 9001:1994, quality audits, EFQM going for excellence, metrology, document management, autoCAD (never used it after the seminar), laboratory standard, shared the informations with colleagues, studied during the night (I had never done it when I was at the University).

After some time I concluded I did not understand this subject, though I wanted to keep up because it was a challenging task and I liked it.

And then all of a sudden I realized that I had never understood what the word "quality" meant I've been into quality since 1991, it was 1997, so after six years I realized that the meaning of that word was the key to accomplish the mission Standards became logical things and so on ...

OK folks, it was clear to me but what about Management ? If THEY did not understand, all my efforts were worthless.

That's another story and I won't tell you much about that.

Suffice it to say that in 1999 I started to attend at quality seminars by myself in my spare time, buying my own quality books, sharing my ideas with colleagues during the week ends, joining a no profit organization to develop quality culture, getting into SDF and other italian Forums and communities and on and on ...

Nearly half way through the week mate - it's hard work isn't it? I think today we should take it easy on you.

How about your family, where do they live? Have you got brothers and sisters?

Regards,
Simon

How about your family, where do they live?  Have you got brothers and sisters?

My father Giorgio, six brothers and sisters, was born in Trieste, 1934 and my mother Erica, one brother, in Zara (at the time it was Italian land, from 1946 former Jugoslavia, currently Croatia) 1941. She was very lucky to survive to Zara bombing attack in 1943.

My mother's family was living in Zara because my grandfather was deemed to be "undesirable person" from fascist's viewpoint. In other words he was not a fascist and forced to live with other "undesirable" people at the very extreme border of Italy. He worked in the former telephone company, then left Zara and lost his job. When they came back to Trieste in 1943, believe it or not folks, he joined an engineering company and had the challenge of setting up a bottling line for milk then after start up he was asked to work as electrician and maintenance clerk in the milk bottling plant till he retired in 1968. Is it a Karma I've been into bottling business for most of my working time ?

My father's family was very poor but had good commercial skills. Grandfather worked in Trieste harbour at the lowest level but later they started a fruit and vegetable shop and did a good business for the whole family.
The business turned to electronics after some time and did good results too, now it's over, you can't run a shop, too big competitors on the market.
My father did many different jobs, started in a butcher's shop, then left Italy and worked in Germany, Australia and Turkey, and finally came back to Trieste, met my mum, they fell in love and after six months they were married. It was in 1964. I was born in 1965 and am an only child.

My dad worked in a food manufacturing plant, they made pork meat, ham, sausages and all that stuff, then lorry driver finally taxi driver in "outsourcing". This means that another guy was the owner of the car and could run the taxi business and my father had to drive it and give him a % on income. In Italy you can run a taxi business only if you have a commercial pass and this pass goes from fathers to sons. No way to buy it. In 1966 we were very poor, we lived in a 30 sqm public flat with no bathroom, we had no telephone and so on... my mom decided to go to work to earn some more money and improve the quality of our life. She applied for nurse at the local hospital and was employed in 1968.
We did not know, but at that time it was the end of our family: I had to go to live with my grandparents (mom's parents) and my father disagreed. I had a very nice time with gradparents, but mum and dad was constantly arguing and disputing. They divorced in 1976 when I was eleven years old, after a very long and consuming "Kramer vs. Kramer" family war. It was a very very sad time for me.
I could not rely on my parents, they needed my help believe me, especially my father, but I was 7, 10 years old and he was 35 - 40 !!!
It was when I decided to rely on myself rather than on other's help.

When I grew up I left my grand parents and went to live with mum, she was devoted to me, and I owe her much gratitude because she gave me the opportunity to study and learn things. No graduates, nor high schools in both families, as you may guess. I did some part time jobs and tutoring
during University time, just to earn some money for the week ends (mainly gasoline, gifts for my girlfriend and the football matches).

Both my parents currently live in Trieste and still avoid each other whenever they occasionally meet. Last time I saw them in the same place was when I married.