Summary
¦ All SCA employees understand their contribution to production flow.
¦ X-ray grading technology supplies the data that helps get the right timber to the right end use.
¦ SCA is working with JELD-WEN on window component development.
¦ The company has IT integration with DIY and builders merchant customers.
Efficient supply chains, until recently, comprised an array of different businesses, each company fulfilling their potential whilst retaining their individuality. In Sweden, business models are changing towards the partnerships prevalent in the best-practice echelons of UK construction.
Here, members of each company co-ordinate their specialisms, acting virtually as one entity rather than as many separate parts.
“Research and development is a collaborative process with industrial customers,” said SCA Timber’s technical director Jerry Larsson. “As producers we must be proactive in proffering innovative solutions, using our raw material to its and its customers’ best advantage. But we can only do this by understanding customers’ markets and production systems and working ever more closely with them. Our aim is to evolve our position from that of the simple supplier of raw materials to acting as an integrated part of customers’ organisations.”
Technical knowledge
For the past 10 years, SCA has gradually been increasing the technical knowledge and competencies across its workforce. “Now everyone from the sawmill manager to the fork lift driver knows how their actions can affect the profitability of the products they handle. They also understand their contribution to the production flow and thus to the success of the company,” said Mr Larsson.
Gearing production to the precise needs of the customer has also been helped by SCA’s recent investment in X-ray grading technology at its Munksund and Bollsta sawmills. The equipment, which measures the density and heartwood content of the wood along with its knot-free sections, enables it to be sorted more effectively and presented to the sawline to achieve best possible use. It came about through technical co-operation between SCA and universities serving the Swedish sawmilling sector.
At Munksund, high heartwood-content material is diverted to the window component line, developed in partnership with one of SCA’s Danish window-producing customers. “We had worked with the customer over a number of years on standard sawn materials,” said Mr Larsson. “Gradually we developed collaborative competence, before taking the final step to become an integrated – and integral – part of their business by opening a dedicated plant.”
X-ray scanning
SCA Tunadal sawmill is likely to be equipped with the X-ray scanning technology as part of moves to make it the most modern spruce mill in Europe, enhancing its capacity to 500,000m³ per year. Last year, collaborative attitudes to product development and integration brought Tunadal its largest single business opportunity in 10 years: a contract to supply JELD-WEN in the UK.
“Through technical discussions, we established an understanding of each other’s strengths and capabilities,” said SCA Tunadal’s product manager Markus Henningsson. “We’ve been able to save the customer valuable time and processing stages by providing specialised components. On the strength of the emerging co-operation between the UK and Sweden, we are now looking at similar potential developments with JELD-WEN France.
“What has been most interesting is the speed at which two companies can integrate production when both parties are committed to making it happen. Together we’ve created a very advanced product and logistics set-up. From Tunadal and SCA Timber’s perspective, this is exactly the type of business we’re looking for, adding value to our raw material.”
Information flows
Information flows are key to such business integration, as witnessed in supply chains in the pharmaceuticals and automotive sectors. “We have a long way to go before the wood industry can match those levels of integration but we’re starting to catch up,” said SCA Timber’s IT manager Per Fohlin.
“This summer, we are looking to implement tailor-made access to our network for JELD-WEN UK so they can monitor and manage their stock entering the UK and manage their order flows directly.”
This would bring SCA closer to full integration with major customers in the UK – and SCA Timber Supply, the company’s UK business, already operates a level of IT integration with its customers in the DIY and builders merchant sectors.
Information exchange inside SCA is also essential to pushing the company further forward, said Mr Larsson. “Smooth, continuous production in the sawmills ultimately starts with cutting in the forests. To move to the next level, we aim to develop an even better dialogue between sawmills and the foresters so we can create an efficient flow right from selecting the tree, through its processing, and up to the finished, delivered product. We have all the data we need to do this but, as Bill Gates once said: ‘How you manage, gather, and use information determines whether you win or lose’.”
