It all began around the mid-1960s when SCA took the initiative to establish uniform product numbering, designations and classifications for its operation and maintenance activities. Today, SSG represents more than five decades of efforts to coordinate issues involving design, purchasing and maintenance issues for the pulp & paper industry.
That an industry has chosen to work in this concrete and practical manner with matters involving costs is totally unique in the forest industry, not to mention the international process industry. Years of experience have also proven that it is entirely possible to use greater collaboration to achieve higher quality at a lower cost.
SSG’s successful collaboration is now firmly established with roughly 450 experts from the international forest industry working actively in more than 60 committees and working groups. The aim is to identify viable solutions, strategic as well as operative, for the industry within a number of areas.
Great interest in SSG Product Database
SSG Product database is a common database containing all of the items of the affiliated industrial enterprises. The creation of the Product Database has resulted in greater spare part accessibility, less tied-up capital, more efficient purchasing processes along with more rational handling and maintenance of plant information compared with having each mill managing this work themselves.
Thirty-two industrial production units now subscribe to the SSG Product Database and we discern an increasing demand for the service from the industry itself and other sectors. We are now working to be able to more quickly involve more units and link more detailed technical information to the items. During the autumn we have also introduced a new standard service that makes it possible for you to send orders directly from, and receive invoices in, your business management system. This development saves a considerable amount of administrative time.
SSG Guidelines become more interactive
SSG Guidelines currently consist of about 4,500 pages of up-to-date technical recommendations covering a number of technical fields. A survey was conducted last year to determine how this information could be used best at the mills. We have also undertaken innumerable site visits and conducted interview and the results have, for example, meant that improved access and greater document interactivity are on their way.
Growing international interest for ChemWeb
SSG ChemWeb is a service aimed at assisting mills and corporate groups to increase their control over chemicals as well as create better environments and deliver improved safety information. Sixty-five mills in 13 countries currently subscribe to ChemWeb. Interest in this service is rising sharply, not least of all due to the coming EU legislation which imposes more rigorous demands on the mills. Close collaboration in this matter has been established with STFI-Packforsk, leader in Scandinavia, and other European research institutes.
SSG Education & Training – Safety in Focus
SSG Education & Training provides a large number of different programmes covering electricity, pressure vessels, hydraulics, chemicals and delivery contracts. ENTRE – a common, web-based safety course for contractors, was introduced this spring. More than 30 mills participated in the development of the course and an estimated 10,000 contractors are expected to complete ENTRE during 2005-06.
Growing organisation
While the organisation necessary to manage this expansion is growing it is still relatively modest in size. There are 19 people at the head office in Sundsvall plus two people working with training in Iggesund and Växjö. As new fields are added, the safety web for example, the organisation will need reinforcement but the goal is to increase efficiency as much as possible though greater coordination.
Multitude of customers
SSG currently has 250 licensed customers, such as single mills or larger organisations composed of a large number of individual users.
Along with the forest industry other base industries have recognized the benefits and interest in joining this collaboration has begun to take root. About 50 percent of the material used by the steel industry, for example, is also used by the forest industry. The opportunities for regional collaboration increase as the number of affiliated mills increases.
Extensive reach
An important task involves being with the customer, wherever they are in the world. SSG’s Technical Guidelines conform to current EU legislation and directives. Therefore, SSG is working to broaden the number of languages covered by its Product Database. Investing in language support also enhances its attraction to researchers and the academic world.
Although the focus is foremost on the major European markets that are just beginning to open up SSG is also increasing its contacts with South America and Asia where many new mills are under construction.
In 1997 SSG’s services were only in use in the Nordic countries and the UK. Today, SSG’s products and services are used in production units in Belgium, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, the UK, Finland, Island, Indonesia, Japan, Canada, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria.
New phase
We are now entering a new phase in the company’s development and we are currently strengthening our sales, marketing and support organisations in order to cope with the increasing sales volume.
Despite this growth and expansion into new markets we are careful about not losing our original focus. Our fundamental mission remains: simplifying procedures for the international forest industry.
Sundsvall, 1 December 2006
Jonas Berggren,
CEO, SSG Teknik AB