Business and Regional Development:

Value creation 2010 Østfold

The project is linked to the food production and packaging industries in Østfold. It is directed towards the development of cooperation and participation based organisational models for the execution of organisational and technological innovation processes, as well as documentation of the value effects of these processes.

The most important results have come out of five business development projects, where tried and tested cooperation and participation based organisation models have been used for execution of innovation processes as follows:

Nortura Gilde: Resource groups at departmental levels for the management and development of the production process.

Glomma Papp: Team development on the corrugated cardboard machine, with focus on day to day management and improvement.

NEN Produkter: Team organisation of  production, with focus on day to day management and improvement.

Råde Bakeri og Konditori: Systems for the use of work groups in connection with planning, constructing and starting a new manufacturing plant.

Mills: Improvement groups linked to the production process.

These ways of organising the innovation process have resulted in the improved running of the production process and improvements in technology, ergonomics, planning and the working environment. In Glomma Papp, the project has contributed to a 20% increase in the efficiency of the corrugated cardboard machine. In NEN Produkter, the project has made the production process 17% more efficient.

The project has been carried out as an equal partnership between Ostfold Research and the engineering department at Ostfold University College. This has lead to a common regional professional community in the area, including eight research scientists.