Nowy Styl Sustainability Report 2018-2019

Our in-house Research and Development Centre , de- veloped with EU funding, will certainly help us achieve that goal. We modernised a floor space of over 1,500 square metres in an existing office building in Jasło, and we con- verted it into an in-house research laboratory. There, we built 102 modern workstations for R&D personnel, and pur- chased a range of specialised machinery, research equip- ment and software to accelerate the prototyping of new products and continuous improvement of existing ones in terms of their ergonomics, environmental impact as well as the efficiency of deployment and manufacturing. Cutting down product deployment and modification times was another important element that has strength- ened our competitive advantage. Automation of product customisation process was one answer to the changing needs of our customers. Parametric data models, integra- tion of the CAD and ERP environment as well as imple- mentation of the PLM platform have all become part of Industry 4.0, a concept we have been developing for a long time, which helps deliver data to machines automatically in a very short time. Technical and production data prepared in advance help dramatically reduce the time from a cus- tomer’s order to the delivery of finished products. Laboratory facilities are not the only area where we bring in innovations. We are gradually modernising our plants, adjusting them to environmental and other require- ments. Our modern powder coating line ML02, completed in 2018–2019, is an example of such an investment. It has helped optimise production processes in three main are- as: reduction of coating powder consumption standards by using a recirculation process to reclaim paint which could not be recovered in the older technology; increasing production capacity by about 60% for the powder-coat- ing process; and reducing the consumption of chemicals thanks to the use of bath filtration systems in the process that prepares parts for coating. At the Wood Processing Plant at Rzepedź, we have im- plemented two projects to help protect the environment by reducing the consumption of energy and raw materi- als. The first one was the launching of a new dust collec- tion system which uses vacuum instead of overpressure, which has reduced the energy needed to power the system by more than 50%. After consulting with customers, our specialists have also distinguished a new quality class of wood veneer, which is the essential rawmaterial processed in the plant, obtained from tree trunks. The new Class Q2 veneer has properties between Classes 1 and 2, and it can be used as Class 1. This has resulted in a significant reduc- tion in demand for wood (we can obtain a higher percent- age of veneer considered top class from the same amount of raw material). It is worth noting that we have been gradually chang- ing the layout and operation of all our plants over the last decade, to match the standards of lean management. In this way, all our plants have uniform operating and safe- ty procedures, which are essential for lean tools. These in turn are closely connected with our proprietary H&S train- ing sessions. As a result of these efforts, our accident rate is getting lower. It is noteworthy that several of our plants have already celebrated a full year without an accident. One of them is the plant in Rzepedź (with the 12-month accident-free period falling at the turn of 2019), which is really unique considering how many risks wood process- ing involves. The safety culture we have been building consistently has a direct impact on the development of our company. Our employees and subcontractors can work at our plants without fear for their own health and life. This, of course, translates into their efficiency and satisfaction. Projects aimed at streamlining work which have a pos- itive impact on the environment have also been carried out in Nowy Styl offices. Introduction and popularisation of the Avaya system was the flagship project here. Avaya is a kind of portal for setting up video meetings, both for internal needs and meetings with external companies. Any employee, as well as anyone from outside the company holding a valid authorisation can join a video conference, teleconference or online presentation using a computer, or a mobile or landline phone. All Nowy Styl offices and show- rooms are provided with special video conferencing rooms that can be booked using a business calendar. In 2019 alone, 5,982 calls lasting 6,900 hours, equivalent to a whopping 287 days were made through Avaya. That modern communication tool has greatly reduced the need for business trips and accelerated a number of processes. 21