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Resource-efficient business – Progress with Grönsamhet
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One of Setra’s core sustainability goals is to reduce energy consumption. The plant in Heby is busy hunting down leakages, reviewing diesel use and switching to LED bulbs. In 2019, employees managed to cut electricity consumption by a whole 4.5%.
IT IS MONDAY morning and at Setra Heby a new and hectic week as begun. As Mill Manager Jan-Erik Johansson-Vik and his right-hand man Olle Johansson tour the plant, they are quick to pick up on any new ideas. “With motivated and committed employees, there is never any lack of suggestions for improvements. Often, the bottleneck ends up being at management level,” states Jan-Erik Johansson-Vik humbly. Before he was recruited by Setra in autumn 2017, he ran a consultancy firm specialising in Lean, constant improvements and organisational development. Now he uses his expertise to fine-tune production within Setra. “Our approach involves the senior managers being part of daily operations. We need to be experts in listening, asking the right questions and understanding what it takes to run this plant even more smartly,” he asserts. Much of that work boils down to measuring and cutting electricity consumption per cubic metre of sawn timber produced.
On the right path The forest industry as a whole set a target of reducing electricity consumption by 20% between the years 2010 and 2020. This is a target that Setra also signed up to and is well on the way to meeting. “Here at Heby, we’re currently conducting a major energy survey. This includes breaking down electricity consumption into smaller units and measuring what draws power in the different departments,” explains Olle Johansson. The main challenge lies in the kiln drying department, where the ambition is to optimise kilowatthours by making the drying process more efficient. “Drying the timber is the most energy-intensive process in the whole mill, but we’ve changed the
Sustainability Report 2019 — Setra Group
control system and are conducting rolling main tenance work to reduce heat leakage,” explains Jan-Erik Johansson-Vik. Alongside the large-scale investments, employees at Setra Heby have also overhauled the lighting, with LED bulbs replacing incandescent bulbs in both the office and the large warehouse on site. Fuel-efficient driving However, the focus is not just on electricity use. Other measures are also under consideration, not least cuts in diesel consumption. One way is to coordinate the warehouses to make the forklift trucks’ journeys shorter. Another is to provide training in eco-driving for improved fuel efficiency, and to gradually switch to more energy-efficient vehicles. Some ideas come out of the daily briefings, at which each department reports on the status of production and any non-compliances and disruptions. “The key is to identify and eliminate our noncompliances as quickly as possible, so that we can design out everything that doesn’t create value. There is a great deal to be gained, for example, by repairing things before they break down. It’s an effective way to avoid production stoppages,” says Jan-Erik. He stresses that success breeds success. New working practices and greater flexibility within the organisation have gone hand-in-hand with both energy savings and increases in productivity. “When the employees see that they can have some influence over the details, their commitment improves. More ideas are being generated than we have time to implement, and we also make sure that we exchange experience with our other units.”
