However, high-quality sawn timber is also produced with more traditional equipment. Back at Renko, spruce sawn timber is produced on a bandsaw-bare chipper-rip saw line. Compared to Rauma, the sawline is slower, but offers premium quality, especially for the wide boards produced on it. Its excellent utilisation rate can be as high as 90 per cent, which is second to none. “Metsä Fibre’s vision of industrial efficiency becomes reality at Renko sawmill,” says Mill Manager Lehtosalo. Metsä Fibre is developing the efficiency of its sawmill operations as a whole, guided by the life-cycle plan prepared separately for each production unit.
The Finnish sawmill industry has typically developed far from growth centres, close to forests and waterways. In many municipalities, residential areas have grown up around the sawmill. Its operations create other local businesses. “In towns with a sawmill, everyone knows at least one person working at the sawmill, and many people enjoy long careers at the mill. Last year, we gave an award to someone who had worked for us for 45 years,” says Mikko Lintula , Mill Manager of Merikarvia sawmill. Among the personnel, Metsä Fibre has a reputation for taking care of its employees. This may explain why the first stage of recruiting for Rauma sawmill attracted over 600 applications. What role do employees play in the quality of sawn timber? This is something all the mill managers of Metsä Fibre’s sawmills agree on. Even the most modern sawline cannot operate without people who anticipate the need for blade changes to ensure high quality and who know the customers’ processes and requirements. Their professional approach helped ensure that Lappeenranta sawmill had gone without a single accident for 700 days at the time of this interview. No wonder, then, that all the mill managers, independently gave the same answer to the last question – “What is your greatest source of pride at the sawmill?” “Our employees.” “I am very proud of our good and professional employees.” “My answer is: our employees. They stand for everything we do.” •
#4 Logistics
At Metsä Fibre’s Lappeenranta sawmill another bundle of sawn timber moves from the kiln drying department to dry sorting. Next it will be graded and aligned at the ends before being packaged. Carrying the Metsä logo, the package is now ready for the world market. Pine sawmill produces close-grained heartwood for windows, doors, and log buildings, for carpentry work and for high-quality glulam solutions. “70 per cent of our products are exported. Our main market areas are Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and the Far East,” says Anssi Meuronen , Mill Manager of Lappeenranta sawmill. It is important to customers that sawn timber orders are delivered as promised. With the help of its partner network, Metsä Fibre can efficiently optimise routes and, thanks to its volumes, it can invite competitive tenders for the routes to benefit customers. Operations related to sea transports are centrally handled by Metsä Group’s service centre, which creates made-to-measure consignments and notifies the customer about their progress. Logistics development is also important for the environment. The optimisation of transport chains, loading and routes supports Metsä Fibre’s goal of reducing the carbon footprint of transports. Export deliveries from Lappeenranta sawmill leave via the Port of Hamina, the Port of Mussalo in Kotka, or the Port of Kaskinen. The most distant deliveries are to Japan, a voyage that takes six weeks.
“Safety at work at Lappeenranta sawmill is world-class.”
Anssi Meuronen
#5 People
Merikarvia is a small municipality in the Satakunta region on the shore of the Bothnian Sea. The municipality of 3,000 in- habitants boasts a diverse economic structure. Local livelihoods come from metal and plastic products, agriculture, and fishing. The municipality’s largest private employer is Metsä Fibre, which employs 74 wood processing professionals at its pine sawmill.
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