Product quality

 

Material impacts, risks, and opportunities and their interaction with strategy and business model (SBM-3)

Product quality is highly relevant to NORMA Group’s business success. The opportunity identified for this Company-specific topic has a lasting impact on NORMA Group’s strategy. By consistently focusing on reliable product quality, the Company strengthens customer satisfaction and loyalty. On this basis, NORMA Group is striving for a leading position in the joining technology sector. NORMA Group sees an opportunity to generate high product quality through high safety standards and the durability of its products. NORMA Group contributes to the impacts with its own activities in the area of product quality. This is directly linked to NORMA Group’s corporate strategy and business model, as the Company, as a manufacturing company, places the highest value on product quality and sees this as a strategic success factor.

For the opportunities identified as material, there is no material actual financial effect on the financial position, results of operations, and cash flows of NORMA Group in the financial year.

As of financial year 2025, metrics in the area of product quality are no longer reported. The reason for this is the reduced importance of the company-specific KPIs reported to date. The average PPM (parts per million) rate and the number of customer complaints can no longer be presented in a standardized and comparable manner due to different customer-specific product specifications and volumes. These are tracked on the basis of individual customer agreements.

NORMA Group continues to focus on the highest quality standards and pursues the goal of ensuring and expanding customer satisfaction through customized solutions and continuous process improvements.

 

Policies related to product quality

Product quality is the top priority in NORMA Group’s divisions. As joining elements for various individual parts, the products make a significant contribution to the reliable functioning and safety of direct customers’ applications. NORMA Group and its brands focus on high reliability, high customer satisfaction, and strong customer loyalty to maintain and reinforce customer confidence in its products and services. The quality of the products and the fulfillment of customer requirements are closely linked.

The quality guideline from financial year 2020 was replaced by a new Group-wide guideline in financial year 2024 and approved by the Chief Operating Officer and the Vice President for Quality, Environment, Occupational Health and Safety. NORMA Group pursues the goal of achieving maximum customer satisfaction by establishing and continuously developing an efficient and effective quality management system. This system is intended to ensure that all relevant norms, standards, and regulatory requirements are brought into line with each other. In addition, it is consistently geared to the needs, requirements, and expectations of our customers. Our aim is to achieve a zero-defect mindset in all production and business processes. This goal is supported by systematic process monitoring, regular audits, and a practiced culture of continuous improvement.

The quality guideline is publicly accessible to all interested stakeholders and highlights the opportunity for NORMA Group. No material impacts and risks were identified in connection with product quality.

 

Taking action on pursuing material opportunities related to product quality, and effectiveness of those actions

In financial year 2025, NORMA Group implemented several actions to ensure and further develop product quality. A global quality management system has been set up to further strengthen quality standards. As a result, new positions were created in the quality management department to ensure the implementation and continuous development of the system. Among other changes, product quality management was shifted from a consolidated metric system to a site-specific or customer-specific system.

A key measure was the further introduction of the QASQ-it digital platform at the production sites. This platform enables the systematic recording and evaluation of quality-related metrics such as the process capability index (Cpk), the timely submission of production part approvals (PPAP), and the processing of complaints. The full implementation of the platform is planned as a multi-year project and will be supported by a specialized team.

In addition, NORMA Group conducted an ongoing customer satisfaction survey in 2025, which serves as a tool for evaluating and improving product and service quality. Furthermore, invention disclosures were submitted that are intended to contribute to innovation and product improvement in the long term. As of December 31, 2025, the total number of patents and utility models amounted to 670 (2024: 719). The number of patents has significantly decreased compared to the previous year. This is due to the consistent application of our patent strategy to the existing portfolio, as a result of which individual patents for older property rights were abandoned. In addition, the ongoing cost pressure is contributing to a further reduction in the patent portfolio.

Through regular auditing in accordance with ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 or EN 9001, certain actions must be implemented and progress made as part of the audit in order to obtain certification. Regular ISO certifications in accordance with 9001 take place at 96% of the production sites and regular ISO certifications in accordance with IATF 16949 or EN 9001 take place at 75% of the production sites.

These actions are intended to increase product quality and strengthen customer loyalty.

 

Targets related to the management of significant opportunities

NORMA Group is committed to the highest quality standards and pursues the ambition of securing and expanding customer satisfaction through tailor-made customer solutions and continuous process improvements. To ensure the quality of its products, NORMA Group focuses on setting individual goals according to customer requirements. An overarching quality metric is no longer collected. Instead, quality monitoring is carried out on an individual customer basis.