Orderliness, openness and productivity

If you ask RIVAL’s production manager Søren Djursland, orderliness begins with openness. Discontent must be put out in the open in order for action to be made. It is essential that the production workers at RIVAL’s are happy to go to work.

“To me, the 80/20 rule applies,” Søren says. “80 % of the time, our employees should feel good because they thrive at RIVAL, have challenging tasks and great colleagues.”

“Therefore, we have to treat each other well and with respect – both internally and externally,” Søren continues”. “It’s okay to curse and swear a little, when things are not going well, however, it’s not okay to malign or speak ill of each other. That’s where the line is drawn.

It’s better to have things out in the open
Our employees spend most of their time awake at RIVAL – and it’s important they are happy to do so. Therefore, we say things straight if there is something that doesn’t work.

Likewise, we always pay regard to our colleagues, when they need their private lives to work. Therefore, working at night works for someone, while weekend work or daytime work is better for others. We try our best to always make a long-term plan and thereby allow our employees the best possible conditions for fitting work into their family lives. These opportunities are increased as we get more and more fixed long-term cooperative agreements with our customers.

Growing productivity
At the same time, there is no doubt that our employees take on more responsibility when they are treated nicely. It all comes down to a growing productivity, quality and delivery reliability,” Søren says.

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RIVAL is something out of the ordinary

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31-year-old Kenni Møller started at RIVAL as a machine worker in November last year. He had heard many great things about the company beforehand and he hasn’t been disappointed since he started – not at all.

The professional competencies, the challenging tasks and “the RIVAL spirit” appeal to Kenni. “I had heard a lot about the very special culture and community at RIVAL before I started working here, and it all sounded very attractive to me both professionally and socially,” Kenni Møller says. “Yet, I asked myself if the rumours were true? And I have to say, they were. The culture here at RIVAL is indeed very special. It is truly a unique place to work.”

A part of the team
From day one, Kenni became a part of “team RIVAL”. He felt, he was respected by the management and by the colleagues in the production from day one. “If you want to be a part of the team, then the team is more than happy to welcome you to join,” he says. “We have a short line of commands, and we always get quick response to suggestions and ideas. That encourages the motivation and benefits our customers in the daily work.”

Enthusiastic about optimisation
Kenni has worn a boiler suit since he was three years old. His grandfather owned a machining company and Kenni was a part of that since he was a child. “I’ve learned how much it means to constantly focus on streamlining, optimisation and automatization,” Kenni says, “and in those periods, in which ‘clever hands’ are hard to find, we have to utilise the opportunity to automate.”

“Kenni is razor-sharp professionally and he has succeeded in entering into our team and being a part of optimising the production of various components,” production manager Søren Djursland says. “He has quickly become a part of the team that works on the 5-axed DMC FD 80. The different competencies in the team supplement each other very well.”

Me warmest recommendations
“RIVAL is without a doubt one of the best places – if not the best place – I’ve ever worked, and I would happily recommend it to others,” Kenni says and continues his work on the components to a big customer in the defence industry, where the last details must be fine-tuned before the production begins.

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It’s costly when we fail

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It’s connected to all manner of costs when we fail at RIVAL and don’t comply with the quality requirements or delivery terms, which are agreed-upon with the customer. However, we are only humans and therefore, we can’t avoid making a mistake.

Quality and delivery time are always essential parts of the deal, when our customers enter into an agreement with us. We always go to great lengths to comply with the agreements, which are made with the customer.

“When we fail”
“We take pains to keep our end of the bargain, because we know the costs, when we fail,” owner and CEO Henrik Holvad says. “I intentionally say ‘when’ we fail, because we know that it can’t be avoided.”

Costly
It’s an expensive business, when we make mistakes. The components, we process, are often critical and costly to the customer. Most likely they are going to be used several hundred meters below the surface of the sea or maybe they are going to Afghanistan with the purpose to make sure our soldiers stay safe inside their new Piranha 5 personnel carriers. Our production is timed, and it doesn’t allow time for delays.

Det koster derfor kunden både økonomisk og på hans omdømme/troværdighed, hvis kunden ikke kan levere til tiden til sine kunder. Samtidig koster det også her på RIVAL, når tingene skal gøres om, og medarbejderne skal arbejde i weekender og aftener for at afhjælpe de fejl, som er begået.

Vi skal lære af fejl
”Vi gør naturligvis alt for at undgå fejl og har både dygtige og veluddannede medarbejdere, gennemarbejdede procedurer og en stærk kvalitetssikring, som minimerer risikoen,” siger Henrik Holvad. ”Når det så sker alligevel, fordi vi er mennesker og ikke robotter, sørger vi altid for at lære af det, som skete, så vi undgår den samme fejl flere gange. Det er vigtigt for både os og vores kunder.”

Læs mere om vores kvalitetsomkostninger og leveringsevne

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Positive reunion with Cuban Ciego Plast

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Just now, a four-man team from RIVAL has travelled the long journey to Cuba to install new equipment and train the Cuban employees in using it. Soon to be 10 years ago, RIVAL delivered the first moulds to the Cuban customer, and recently the Cubans decided to extend the assortment with bigger moulds.

Back in 2010, RIVAL produced and installed 28 moulds with the size of Ø200 – Ø1000 mm at Ciego Plast, which is located in the middle of Cuba and about 400 km from the capital Havana. The moulds are applied at the company’s extrusion line, and they are easy to replace with the pipe tool, when the production changes from pipes to flanges.

Moulds and CNC-machine
“This time around, the customer has bought two Ø1200 mm moulds from us as well as our CNC-machine,” RIVAL’s owner Henrik Holvad says. “The mould solution is ideal to the production of flanges and spacers. It provides a more effective utilisation of their production machinery to a much lower price than the alternative, which would be to make a big investment in an injection moulding machine with instruments.”

With the newly installed CNC-machine, the customer can complete the moulded flanges in-house. Previously, they had to send all the components off-site, which caused many delays and erratic quality.

A strong team
RIVAL’s very experienced and long-time group manager, Torben Pedersen, went to Cuba with Martin Højvang Pedersen and apprentice Kristian Bilstrup from RIVAL to install the CNC-machine in the customer’s production area. However, the Cubans only speak Spanish, which none of the three guys can brag about. Therefore, Kathrine Nielsen went with the three guys to act as interpreter.

Torben, Martin and Kristian all contributed with their different skills, and they supplemented each other well. Torben has produced many moulds, and he knows everything there is to know about them and the CNC-machine. Martin used to be a tractor mechanic, and he knows how to solve many tasks with only a few resources. “Give the man a bended nail and some cable ties, and he can do everything,” Torben says. “However, despite the fact that we tried to predict potential complications before we left, we were aware that we would enter situations, in which we needed something, we couldn’t get. In those situations, Martin’s skills were indispensable. Kristian is always full of energy, and he solves the jobs, we give him, quickly and efficiently.”

 

Indispensable interpreter
The 24-year-old student Kathrine joined the team and acted as interpreter. She speaks Spanish fluently as a result of having spent a year studying abroad in Chile. Torben told her, which technical terms, she needed to practice from home. Therefore, he introduced Kathrine to all the technical stuff at RIVAL, and she participated in the preliminary meetings with the Cubans during the sales process.

“Kathrine did an amazing job,” Torben says. “She successfully translated my explanations to the Cubans in Spanish as well as translating their questions to Danish.”

Education, installation and a goodbye to an old friend
Torben has spent many months in the moulds production, and he prepared the installation and education before he went to Cuba. At the same time, he had to prepare himself to saying good to the CNC-machine, he had “collaborated with” for many years at RIVAL.

“We have followed each other for many years, so it almost felt like saying goodbye to an old friend,” Torben says. “Therefore, it feels good that I went to Cuba to see its’ new home.”

A great experience
RIVAL’s 17-year-old apprentice Kristian had been looking forward to going to Cuba for many years. “Since the day Torben told me I was going to Cuba, I asked him every day, when we were going and if he was a hundred percent sure that I was going,” Kristian says.

“It was very cool to go to Cuba an experience how different their system is compared to ours,” Kristian says. “It doesn’t work well with my temper, because everything is going so slow and is not as effective compared to back home. However, it was very nice to experience the country, and I learned a lot from the many professional challenges, I had to solve. Also, we had a lot of fun in the group that went.”

We make a difference
The trip to Cuba was a great experience to the team, which has worked hard and for many hours, while they were gone, which the customer appreciated. “In this job, we could really make a difference to our customer due to our competencies, tools and machines,” Torben says. “The Cubans really wanted to learn from us, and they produce nice products despite the fact that their production is in no way comparable to ours. It was a big experience to see – yet it does feel good to be back in Denmark again.”

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RIVAL contributes to the development of the wind turbines of the future

Customer-specific blade profiles from RIVAL help generate valuable test data for Danish and thus the world’s leading wind turbine manufacturers as well as universities working on developing the wind turbines of the future.

Wind power is a major focus area in Denmark, and the government has made it a firm objective that sustainable energy must cover 100% of the Danish energy consumption by 2050. Danish wind turbine manufacturers are dominant in Europe and work hard to maintain this position in a market that has grown by more than 25% per year for the last 18 years.

Full-scale tests are becoming a challenge
As part of this development, the wind turbines are becoming bigger and bigger. This creates challenges when it comes to testing the blades for capacity and safety without having the facilities to do full-scale tests. The blades are considered one of the most critical parts of a wind turbine, and today the average blade is around 90 metres long. Blades of up to 107 metres are on their way. Design, materials and solutions are therefore often validated on smaller blades or using scaled tests.

The best approximation
For several years, RIVAL has collaborated with leading wind turbine manufacturers and several universities to develop blade profiles (cross sections) that give the best possible approximation of full-scale blades as regards design, surface, material and execution. “Today we can offer our customers a tried and tested product that complies with the strict requirements to the blade profiles used in the tests,” says development engineer Esben Sarenbæk from RIVAL. “We produce many different blade profiles each year. The customers typically test one blade at a time, perhaps with 2–4 different profiles, and we deliver one a week during the test period.”

“Feinschmeckerei”
“We typically receive a 3D drawing from the customer, which we process in our CAD system, and there are a number of processing and assembly requirements that we have to comply with. A finished wind turbine blade, for example, has no joints, so neither do our blade profiles. During the final processing stage, all blade profiles are polished by hand so that even the slightest groove is completely removed. The blade model contains a number of 0.4 mm pressure holes that are connected to a pressure scanner by means of thin urethane hoses.”

In its work with blade profiles, RIVAL focuses on surface smoothness, homogeneity and contour in order to create the best flow around the blade profile and achieve the best approximation of the theoretical dimensions. This produces the best possible data for analysis by the customer.

Well-documented blade profiles
The blade profiles are also very well documented, and measurements are taken to check all the customer’s dimensions. Everything is documented in a report, which is attached to the individual profile. The profile is packed in a custom-made transport box which protects it both during transport and subsequent storage at the customer’s premises.

Close collaboration on development
Today, RIVAL collaborates with both Danish and foreign universities as well as wind turbine manufacturers about the further development of the blade profiles. “We have accumulated considerable competence in the area and often serve as a sounding board,” says Esben. “Recently we were contacted by a Dutch university which is in the process of developing a new model, and we have also manufactured a blade profile for the new wind tunnel at the Technical University of Denmark.”

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Successful Recertification at RIVAL

In mid-June, DNV GL completed an audit at RIVAL in connection with the company’s ISO recertification. After that, RIVAL received a lot of acclaim and is now certified in accordance with ISO 9001:2015 with no remarks.

The culture at RIVAL involves employee welfare and engagement as well as a well-structured management system, which is adjusting and improving continuously. “The recently completed audit confirmed just that,” says quality coordinator Liv Vallø from RIVAL and continues, “It was a great pleasure to accompany the auditor from DNV around our company and experience RIVAL through his viewpoint and to witness his excitement.”

Well-structured management system pays off
RIVAL’s owner Henrik Holvad confirms this positive experience. “On a daily basis, we focus on improving the internal procedures to the delight of both customers, employees and RIVAL. To remain a productive business, it is crucial that we are in control of our quality department. That involves management of deviations and customer claims, follow-ups on measurements and action plans, overviews of employee competencies and other areas in our management system, which need standard procedures.”

Acclaim and great engagement
RIVAL received a lot of acclaim by the completed audit. The auditor from DNV had 10 comments to RIVAL of which the nine were acclaim and the tenth was an improvement proposal, which the company has already implemented. “To achieve such a result is only possible due to the fact that we work as one big team every day,” says Liv. “It is amazing to experience the way all of our employees engage in the quality work and see the profit of it.”

Orderliness in everything
The core value of RIVAL – orderliness – was acclaimed in the completed audit too and RIVAL’s social responsibility for employing both apprentices and refugees was praiseworthy in particular. “At RIVAL, it is needless to say that orderliness is integrated in all parts of our business,” says Henrik Holvad. “We are very happy that our orderliness and many other ways of doing business are acclaimed in the completed audit. It is always nice to confirm that we do things well and appropriate. It has great value both in-house and in the collaboration with our customers.”

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