Since its founding in 1981, ProfilGruppen has consciously worked on implementing an objective-oriented quality and environment system. The company became environmentally certified in accordance with ISO 14001 in 1998 and in 1999 became the first Nordic company in its industry to be accredited in accordance with QS-9000. Since the beginning of 2006, ProfilGruppen upgraded its quality system principally by becoming compliant with TS 16949 – the global quality certification for the vehicle industry.

Quality with a holistic perspective

ISO TS 16949 may be regarded as a business management system covering all company processes. As part of this management system, the Group has intensified improvement activities using PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) methodology. Competence matrices are used to describe the competence level of all departments and every position in the company. In this way, training requirements can be identified, thereby facilitating development of the business.

Committed improvement work

The Group has adopted the Balanced Scorecard approach to managing its business. This means that all departments in the company plan their activities and set objectives based on four main areas. These main areas are:

• Customer focus 
• Process focus
• Financial focus
• HR focus

In practical terms, the process starts with company management drawing up a scorecard for the company. Using this scorecard as a base, the other departments then draw up their own scorecards. In this way, all objectives in the company become interlinked.

In order to develop the business and to achieve the objectives set in the scorecards, the company works using PDCA methodology, a tool for defining, implementing and managing corrective measures and improvements. The methodology is strongly linked to planning, implementation, verification and improvement.

The objectives for each department in the company are visualised in the business, which means that management and employees can keep a continual track on how improvement work is progressing.

Quality

Group delivery reliability fell slightly compared with the previous year, which means that the objective of 95 per cent delivery reliability was not achieved. Procedures have been implemented by means of a total overview of the Group’s delivery chain.

Advantage aluminium
The characteristics of aluminium have a number of environmental advantages, not least the fact that the material can be recycled an almost infinite number of times and still retain its original strength.

The Group pursues a successful environmental programme, which has contributed to reducing the company's costs. All employees on the production line underwent training for source sorting during the year.

Continued reduced energy consumption
The Group measures energy consumption by the number of kilowatt hours required to produce a kilogram of aluminium extrusion. For many years, the company has managed to reduce energy consumption through the implementation of objective-oriented work, and this positive trend continues.

Energy consumption fell by around 4 per cent to 1.40 kWh/kg (1.46) manufactured aluminium extrusion. This has been made possible by a series of improvements, including the implementation of more efficient frequency regulation of pneumatic compressors in press lines and extended heat recycling from the surface treatment process bath.

In the past five years, the Group has reduced energy consumption per kilogram of manufactured aluminium extrusion by just over 17 per cent. Part of the excess heat created by the production process is sold on to the local district heating company. This surplus heat, which would otherwise be vented, provides additional finances and contributes to an improved energy balance in the company.