'The Focus on Quality': Siedle Communication Systems. (Profile of the Week).

Communication has been acquiring an ever-increasing spectrum of functions since the dawn of history. First, electricity was introduced and we no longer needed to knock on the door in order to gain entry into someone's house. In the course of the 20th century, audio and visual signal transmissions underwent the same development. We don't need to be anywhere near someone's front door today to be able to see and hear them.

The Siedle company, which was founded in 1750, did not survive for all these years without constantly changing and adopting to the times. It is still headquartered in the same Black Forest valley as it was 250 years ago, and it still bears the name of its original proprietors. But what has remained unchanged is that Siedle's primary field of activity, building communications, is something people still consider worth spending time and money on.

The process of globalization is bringing new competitors into the communication game and, at the same time, changing its rules. While simple equipment of questionable quality can be produced elsewhere at low cost, Siedle's recipe for success is in producing high-value, top-quality products with long service life. In production, we the company uses all the technical and organizational opportunities available today. Its creative, well-informed, motivated employees achieve peak performance in terms of automation and process simplification. It is Siedle's goal to integrate intercom and intelligence security systems in its overall design requirements. Planners and builders get what they want from the company, in the way they want it. What makes Siedel's system unique also guarantees its future success: variability and flexibility. Horst Siedle has been able to build on this tradition and he has ensured that Siedle products represent the acme of design, quality, and technical development

Today's Siedle sees itself as a design-oriented company. The Siedle design is an essential and integral part of the brand profile. System design presents a dual task for the designer -- all parts must fit together in every combination, from both an aesthetic and a practical point of view.

At the same time, every combination must also succeed as an individual unit. Siedle is not interested in mere product cosmetics. Too much emphasis on fashionable design is harmful because system products have a long life and are of material value.

Product quality is a guiding principle of Siedle's corporate philosophy. Quality assurance alone accounts for 8.8% of the manufacturing costs. Siedle manufactures almost all of the components for its system products itself It directs the development process, the choice of materials and the design, and follows up on the installation and assembly. Service and advice should also match the products themselves. That is why Siedle firmly believes in adhering to the proven success of a specialist dealer network. The company is certified to DIN EN ISO 9001, as well as to DIN EN ISO 14001.

In 1903, Siedle offered the first house telephone. In 1981, Siedle presented the first modular loudspeaker system. The firm decided to stop producing individual products and start an open system based on the modular principle. Modules are put together to form a system, and the system integrates the modules and different requirements -- from the customer, the market, or the technology. The presentation of the most startling innovation of the year 2000 provoked an enthusiastic response from both architects and planners. Siedle-Steel combined the latest system technology with the beauty of stainless steel material.

In its own development department, but also in cooperation with various universities, Siedle conducts research on new ideas for "visitor entry control" solutions.