We at SIG meet Antonia Jabalera

In this edition, we meet Antonia Jabalera, Quality & Project Management Director for the spouted pouch machines at SIG, to hear her journey, her views on quality, and how she fosters a culture of continuous improvement.

Please introduce yourself

My name is Antonia Jabalera. I am married and have two sons, and my background is in industrial engineering.

I began my career working on construction projects before moving to the pharmaceutical sector, where I was responsible for validation documentation of machinery, processes, and services.

Eventually, I joined the packaging sector and started at SIG as a project manager. Over the years, I participated in the development of two horizontal form fill and seal (HFFS) aseptic machines, before moving into quality. In 2012, I took responsibility for the quality department, where I continue to work today.

How would you describe the importance of Quality in one sentence?

Quality is not just a priority, but a value that all company members must embrace. It is not the sole responsibility of the quality department — quality is everyone’s responsibility.

What does “excellence” mean to you in your role?

To me, excellence means embedding a culture of continuous improvement into our organization.

In daily operations, short deadlines often limit the time to consider improvements. But true excellence comes when we stop, rethink, and design definitive solutions that prevent problems from happening again.

We embraced Lean Manufacturing concepts and trained all employees in the basics. This has helped us improve machine manufacturing processes and build a stronger culture of continuous improvement.