Smart solutions prevent ten-week production stops at Orkla

The Nidar factory in Trondheim with its 300 staff is Norway’s only full-range sweet factory, making everything from chocolate, confectionery, sweets and liquorice to jelly sweets.

It all started when one of the main production machine’s plastic distribution arms broke and brought the whole production to a stop. Then CAD Manager Idar Tanemsmo had to contact the Italian supplier of the machine to have the part replaced:

In-house competence is valuable

Luckily Tanemsmo is a skilled and trained user of Autodesk Inventor, the software that helps you draw, visualise and simulate technical designs in 3D. Thanks to close cooperation between Orkla IT, Orkla Confectionery & Snacks Norge and Symetri, which supplies and runs the solution, Tanemsmo has access to the right software solutions and associated competence and
support services.The big delivery cost made him think again, and he ended up taking detailed measurements of the plastic arm and drawing it in Inventor. He could thereby deliver a detailed, specified order to a local machine manufacturer, and the new part was soon in the hands of Tanemsmo, ready for installation in the IFA machine. Not only had the automatic technology saved €18,500 for the machine part, but it had also reduced the production stop from three months to two weeks.

“Would I have managed that without knowledge
of Inventor? I doubt that!”

Tanemsmo explains that many similar situations arise during a year, even if they are usually on a smaller scale than this. But if he had added all these situations together, it would have been a lot of money. There are therefore opportunities for big savings from having real tools and competence available internally.

More efficient production plants 

The story about the IFA machine is one small example of the importance of Symetri’s solutions to Orkla Confectionery & Snacks Norge and Nidar.

To be able to make a production plant like Nidar more efficient, the right software and good knowledge are crucial. This is the core business of Symetri, which is ready to supply unique solutions varying in complexity, based on needs and activity.

Together with customers like Orkla, Symetri creates overall concepts that effectively reduce costs, shorten production times and develop the company further for continuous increases in productivity.