Looking to the future: four changes for 2022
We like to think of ourselves as a company with eyes wide open to the future, like that friend who always looks on the bright side of things, ready to embrace the future. We are leaving behind two difficult years, which have challenged all our certainties and self-assurance. Despite this, we have not let discouragement take control in the past two years and we have undertaken a massive change in our company: we have modified our name and have defined a new production method.
How do we train our attitude to change? Belief in continuous improvement is the answer and this only happens by looking ahead, even in a year like 2020 or 2021. So, for all those who need an enthusiastic outlook to 2022, we have created a list with four Must-Have related to change which are our stake for next year. They are about us, our company and what we are going to do.
1. The agent of change
We are betting on a new professional profile for 2022: the agent of change. This person will join our team to propose changes consistent with our mission, to give continuity to improvement and to spread the culture of action without waste, trying to find concrete solutions to problems. The agent of change is an unusual function for companies, but we are convinced that the way to go – and this involves everyone – should more and more often be focused on finding people with business skills geared towards facilitation and lean process transformation. Our aim is to daily promote debate with a professional who is willing to involve different functions at different levels in order to overcome any obstacles to change, with a view to continuous improvement.
2. Greater in-house production autonomy
It will not take long – a few days, perhaps weeks – before a new processing area is defined in our company. Over the last few months we have been working on insourcing two steps in the chair and furniture production process we did not have in-house, i.e. painting and upholstery. Painting is the first process we will insource because we already have a space set up and partly operational. Upholstery will be insourced later and will allow us to offer our customers an increasingly more streamlined service, from design to the last piece. Why have we made this choice? Our intention is to extend to all processing steps our idea of production cycle where waste is eliminated, the customer is a value and continuous improvement is guaranteed.
3. True sustainability
Sustainability is a topic you can only address with data at hand and results in concrete choices. We have already pursued and disclosed some of them, such as the achievement of FSC® certification (awarded in March 2021), the reuse of waste and inventories (80% at present), the use of solid wood (90% at present), and the elimination of MDF and chipboard in production (99% at present). The sustainable choice for 2022 will be the use of total water paint, which guarantees reduced emissions that damage the environment, while maintaining a yield comparable to normal solvent-based paints.
4. Creating more experiences
In an increasingly digital and virtual world, we are committed to creating real experiences as well because we strongly believe that experiencing our company, here and with us, can be an added value. The objective for the near future will be to offer our customers a “Venature’s Experience” where they can walk the 100 metres of the production department, talk to the people and spend time understanding how we manage change in order to offer an efficient and punctual service. A real and physical company visit you will be invited to take.