AVK sustainability report 2023 with links A4 - Flipbook - Page 36
ISO 14001 – Environmental management
Our mayor production companies have
a constant focus on maintaining and
implementing the environmental management
system ISO 14001. This system helps to
ensure environmental policies, procedures,
and routines. The number of ISO 14001s has
increased this year.
As an industrial Group, we are aware that some
of our manufacturing companies have resourceintensive production processes. That is why
we work focused to reduce our impact on the
environment and climate. We will continuously
strive to minimise our energy consumption,
expand the use of renewable energy sources,
promote recycling of materials and products,
and manage waste in an environmentally
responsible way. Our ongoing improvements are
documented through data collection and setting
new targets for improvement.
Recycling and circularity
In our factories and foundries, where we have
certified environmental management systems
according to ISO 14001, we have implemented
waste reduction and recycling programmes.
This means sorting waste into the right waste
fractions and ensuring efficient recycling.
Internally, we have initiated a data collection
project to get the full overview of the total
amount of waste in the AVK Group. This
includes both the waste that is reused and
recycled, and the non-recycled waste. As we
achieve a valid amount of data, we will start
monitoring the handling and performance of the
individual sites.
It it our ambition that more than 80% of our
waste should be recycled and reused, while
non-recyclable waste should not exceed 20% of
our total waste volume by 2025.
To achieve this goal, we will continue to identify
methods and processes to reduce waste and to
reuse and recycle materials in our factories. It
is our expectation that our work with life cycle
assessment will lead to the identification of new
materials for recycling, both internally in the
AVK Group and in close co-operation with our
suppliers.
Other environmental and climate
initiatives
Our approach to reduce energy consumption
also includes performing energy audits,
switching to more energy-efficient equipment,
and optimising operational processes. We
continue to update LED lighting in all facilities
and use programmable lighting and thermostats
36 | AVK Sustainability report 2022/2023
CASE
Strategic work with Lean creates results
at AVK Syntec
AVK Syntec in China works strategically
with Lean. To improve overall efficiency and
productivity, the focus of the strategic goals
for the year 2022/23 was environmental
footprint, sustainability, and production costs
and efficiency. Processes with bottlenecks
were analysed using the Lean methods
“8-Type of Waste”, “5 WHYs” and “Go Look
See”, here are two examples of improvement
that have been identified.
DN32 injection mould optimisation
The injection mould for DN32 produces three
different components. During the production
process, there were issues with loss of
raw material and the mould created small
voids in the moulded rubber components.
The solution was to optimise the setting of
casting and process parameters. As a result,
savings on the raw material were 14.4%,
49.6% and 59.5% for the three components,
respectively. The problems with the void
were reduced from 35% to 0% and overall
efficiency improved by 52%.
in offices and facilities. One way to do this is
through energy audits, whereby we collect best
practices and identify innovative ways to save
and reuse energy. When expanding production
capacities and facilities, we carefully consider
and include energy optimisation as a parameter
when choosing solutions.
Dryer optimisation
Each moulding machine has a dryer, and
each dryer posed a potential safety hazard
if operators failed to turn off the machine
manually. A consequence was loss of raw
materials and damage to the filter. The
solution was to add an automatic switch
between the heat source and the filter, which
minimised the safety risk due to elevated
temperatures and the filters were no longer
damaged.
Supported by the management and
employees at AVK Syntec, major
improvements have been achieved, which
not only increase production efficiency and
employee satisfaction as well as reduce
overall production costs.
