Operations

In the Company’s matrix organisation, Operations is the area of the organisation that is responsible for production, logistics, and purchasing. Production takes place in six factories in Sweden, one in Great Britain and one in China.

Efficiency gives competitive priceser

Fagerhult has grown during recent years through many different company acquisitions. Possibilities for the creation of synergies through which the Group can rationally organise purchasing activities, production, and logistics in production have opened up. Efficiency is the overriding aim of Operations so that Fagerhult can offer products at competitive prices. Working smarter and sparingly (LEAN) without lowering the quality of the products is the key concept.

Fagerhult’s Guiding Principles

A tool for the discussion and creation of understanding of this is Fagerhult’s Guiding Principles (FGP), which forms an outline of the values that apply to the company. FGP makes up the foundation for the employees and the company’s attitude to safety and environment, quality, delivery, and finances. Personal responsibility is the key to high-quality workmanship and summarises, in a simple manner, the individual’s role in every instance to meet the customer’s requirement for good quality. Without customers - no business – and the customer is always right, as is emphasised in the two words “customer first”.

Intense competitions

Pressure for lower costs in production is growing with intense competition. This pressures the company to steadily work with questions concerning efficiency. In Swedish production, this can only partly be met by automation. Fagerhult has invested between MSEK 30-40 this year in finding solutions using automation to increase production as well as the use of production robots in Swedish factories.

Furthermore, Fagerhult also works with programmes to increase cash flow and decrease capital tied up by the whole process. Among other things, steps have been taken to organise purchases in the whole company and to keep the number of suppliers and lower buying costs drastically. In order to strengthen competitiveness in the long term, Fagerhult chose, in 2005, to start production at its plant in Suzhou, China.

Delivery safety

The first impression of good quality the customer experiences is when the product is delivered intact and on time. A product that is not delivered on time affects the impression the customer will form of Fagerhult’s products in the future. In the building business, logistics or every product delivered on time is crucial for the development of a building project. Fagerhult follows the delivery of products in detail. One factor that can affect this is competition from other marketing segments. A component that is needed in certain electrical fittings is also used in TV equipment. The surge in sales of flat-screen televisions has created an unexpected shortage of supplies from subcontractors and has affected the security of the delivery of certain Fagerhult products.