Factory of the month Husqvarna
planning staff. These indiviuals ensure customer satisfaction is guaranteed for two very different types of operations. “External work is stable business 12 months a year,” confirms Robinson.
Training temporary workers It is easy to think that having to train new people year after year to work on a wide range of products can be a labour-intensive, time-consuming operation, but Husqvarna believes it’s got it covered. “All the training is internal. The supervisors prepare people very actively as we go towards our busy period, making sure they are trained as quickly as possible and to the right quality standards,” says Robinson. She admits that in terms of actual work content, many tasks are relatively easy to learn and understand: on the assembly lines, all of them being one-piece flow, the average takt time for a standard product is around 30 seconds. Training is delivered to ensure that operators work safely, and that products are of a high quality standard. According to Robinson, a crew can be brought up to speed within two to three weeks. The company produces garden vacs, several models of lawn mowers and even robotic mowers. All these gardening tools are characterised by a smart design making them extremely appealing to the eye. Husqvarna UK sees two main areas of growth within its product range. The first is represented by the Gardena-branded products, which are sold solely to European customers and therefore constitute a great
opportunity in terms of exports. Husqvarna acquired German company Gardena in 2007, and has developed a range of Gardena and Flymo lawnmowers using a common platform approach: it can manufacture two different products from a standard set of tooling. The products are then tailored to appear very different but with small investment in specific tooling, and clever use of colour.
Delocalising the supply chain Husqvarna has seen static volumes over the past few years. It managed to keep them steady even through the recession, during which the company saw its customers trading down and going for less expensive products. We work very closely with our sales team in the UK to try and minimise the
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