SCA’s high fliers

29 June 2020


Over the past 12 months SCA has made a major step change to its Quality Assurance performance by bringing on board a couple of “high fliers”.

The appointment of Paul Nash (head of quality) and Robert Beardmore (quality assurance manager) who both joined SCA from the aerospace sector, has driven significant improvements in its’ processes and procedures.

Whilst not the usual source of expertise for the timber sector, the skills and experience gained from the aerospace sector have proved to be highly transferrable to its timber operations, says the company.

All areas of its supply chain have benefitted from the application of more exacting and precise standards. These include raw material supply, product specifications, production quality control, together with legal compliance and regulation across the whole business.

SCA, which has four sites across the UK, works closely with its Swedish mills to develop tighter specifications in order to reduce wastage and improve production efficiency and production yields, enhancing profitability.

“Working closely with our supplier partners to develop streamlined quality and operational procedures and working practices, we are delighted with the results that we have so far achieved and look forward to further strengthening our partnerships to drive continued success in the future” said Paul Nash.

“Our QA function applies root cause analysis and sampling techniques to establish factual data for objective action, review and measurement of improvements” added Bruce McKay, supply chain and procurement director Bruce McKay.

More recently, SCA has embraced the technology to track quality issues with its customers by partnering with Nest, which allows the tracking of information via tablets.

“We are delighted with the step changes that we have experienced our customers also recognise the improvements that we have made as the benefits are seen right through to their own customers, who appreciate the consistent level of quality they receive from SCA Wood UK, said John Griffiths, managing director, SCA Wood UK.