LEANcompacting implemented at HydraSpecma

Staff can purely focus on doing tasks that add value to the business, rather than taking the cardboard and plastic waste for an unnecessary walk

Mil-tek LEANcompacting at HydraSpecma

Hydra Specma reduced internal truck transportation by 75% and saved 8 hours per week by implementing a LEAN and sustainable solution to their waste handling processes.

LEAN production areas

Hydra Specma is a well-reputed Danish company with around 300 employees. While they supply a wide range of components across industries, their three core focus areas are industry, wind, and offshore.

The company is known for its LEAN production areas and strong lean mindset in day-to-day operations. However, as Hydra has expanded over the years into three separate buildings, maintaining this lean approach has become more challenging.

One consequence of this growth is that waste handling has become less efficient. Waste has traditionally been collected in cages across the facility and transported by truck to an external collection area, making the process time-consuming and less streamlined.

To see how companies like Hydra can overcome these challenges, explore our approach to Lean Waste Management.

Texts highlighting the great results Hydra Specma achieved after installing a baler

Value stream mapping with GPS

Mil-tek assisted in a value stream mapping exercise on Hydra’ internal waste transport with the help of GPS technology. It uncovered that the waste wagon was doing around 50 km. pr. a week and going out of the production buildings 30 times per day on average. It was also calculated that approx. 8 hours per week was spent at the large outside compactor for manually loading the waste from cages to the compactor.

For some of these cages in the unpacking area, which was closer to the outside waste area – the cages were transported outside by hand. Then unloaded manually. And then finally returned empty to the again unpacking area. All in all an unhandy process for staff, which Hydra also recognized and wanted to find an improved solution for.

Warehouse aisle at Hydra Specma with natural light streaming in from the far end

The right approach

Hydra had a very proactive and forward-thinking approach to this challenge and was interested in “reversing” this scenario to avoid all the outside trips with waste.

They were looking for a solution to make localised waste areas instead of the traditional single waste collection point. Further to this, they had a great interest in improving their green accounts and making sure as much waste as possible was recycled.

Simple to use

Mil-tek has since then supplied a variety of solutions that fits the need at Hydra.
In 2 of the 3 production areas, electric balers have been put in place, to handle large, heavy cardboard packaging streams.

Now, staff in these areas only have to feed these solutions and empty them once or twice a week. The Mil-tek solutions are simple to use, meaning that all staff has the ability to load and operate.

dark haired man operating a large baler at hydra specma

No unnecessary walks

In the unpacking area, a range of pneumatic balers has been connected to the existing airline installed, and are now handling all the cardboard and plastic waste that is being generated when unpacking goods coming in from sub-suppliers.

Here, every unpacking station has a dedicated Mil-tek solution for cardboard and a bag stand for plastic waste, so the staff can purely focus on doing tasks that add value to the business, rather than taking the waste packaging for an unnecessary walk.