An Association Abreast of the Times

Enhancement of services offered, integration between school and industry, safety on the workplace, particularly complicated norms and new synergies among associations: these and other hot topics were dealt with during G.I.S.I.’s latest general assembly

by Claudia Dagrada

On December 12th G.I.S.I.’s general assembly was held and a report was presented on the activities carried out in 2018; current topics were dealt with in order to provide associates with valid suggestions and opportunities for further considerations.
As the new president, Lino Ferretti, remarked, the new board which took office last January is carrying on with the modernization process which began six years ago: “We asked ourselves what were the issues to develop so as to meet our associates’ demands: privacy, health and safety of workers, enhancement of the survey on the Italian market with a new partnership. Very simple to think about, but not as easy to carry out”.

Synergy to become integrated in a single association?
Among the topics discussed, new synergies with other associations were prominent, and so was the change of the charter to keep G.I.S.I. abreast of the times. The latter step is however in a standby phase. Meanwhile, a study was set up with Assiot and AssoFluid to become integrated into a single association, Federtec. Such a step would allow greater representativeness with institutional organs, larger business channels, greater synergies in the association world, all of this while keeping the G.I.S.I. brand and the company’s historical identity. However there was also a lot talk about the risks of such an operation, such as sharing arguments with other concerns and reducing autonomy. The new members, DFX, GA, A.S.T., Koso Parcol, SasAutomation, Studio C.I.S.A., STC Cerrigone, Recom Industriale and Bender Italia were then welcomed.

2017 data for the Italian market and forecasts for this year
The performances of the Italian market of process instruments were analysed; they are monitored every year by G.I.S.I. with surveys based on sales data. This year the data collected were compared to those gathered by Cogent, a company which caries out surveys using personal interviews on a significant panel of companies. They were presented by Giampaolo Vitali, researcher at the National Research Centre, Cogent’s Umberto Cè and Renato Uggeri, G.I.S.I.’s honorary president. The Italian market is evaluated at around 3.7 – 4 billion euros. Instruments accounted for over 1.2 billion, with 751.5 million concerning such product families as: regulation valves (37%), pressure measurements (19%), flow measurement (15%) and level measurement (12%).
Regarding 2018, however, according to an estimate by Cogent based on forecasts provided by companies interviewed between June and July, the domestic market should experience a slight downturn (-1.2%) while the analysis market in general should decrease slightly (-0.5%).

Integration between school and work, and the new privacy regulations
The time then came for one of the aspects which are most relevant for G.I.S.I., that is, the integration between the training and industrial worlds. In this respect updates wre provided by Giancarlo Franzè and Marta Terruzzi, from e-work, a job agency which organizes orientation modules and projects with schools to bridge the gap between training and work. Currently there are two schools interested in forwarding a project which would alternate training at school and on the job with G.I.S.I. A theme which is just as complex was dealt with by Stefano Azzolina from the Azzolina law firm, who provided insight on the EU 679:2016 regulation concerning privacy. He mentioned the rather complex application of this norm (especially the confusion between elasticity and extensions), of the necessary modules and of the problems linked to electronic invoicing.

Health and safety on the workplace, motivations and advantages
Luca Ferrero, Intertek, described extensively the Management System for Health and Safety of Workers, the new ISO 45001:2018. He explained in detail the advantages deriving from a certified system, such as: reduction of costs for accidents, injuries and professional illnesses; increase of efficiency and corporate performances; optimization of the invested resources; ease in production of al documents required by the norms. Loredana Agnello from Studio Ethos also dealt with the theme of safety but from a different standpoint: how to motivate personnel regarding safety, starting first of all from what is essential to the individual, so as to turn a forced behaviour into something stimulating. Objectives, rewards, acknowledgements and above all a sense f belonging are necessary: all these motivation leverages are to be inserted in a well conceived corporate development plan.